An action-packed, satisfying love story gets this supernatural series off to a rousing start.
Adam’s (Unforgiven, 2015, etc.) debut paranormal YA romance, the first in her Soulkeepers trilogy, pits angels against demons as they war over souls in modern-day Connecticut.
Sophia St. James, 17, is still grieving the death of her mother when she and her father flee California (and Sophia’s abusive boyfriend) to start a new life in New England. Driving into the Connecticut town of Haven Hurst, Sophia witnesses a car accident and sees what apparently no one else can: an angel saving a life. On her first day of school, she learns that the angel she saw is a senior in her class named Michael Patronus. Sophia has lately been troubled by unexplainable visions and powerful emotions, but Michael and his brothers are unlike anything she’s ever experienced. Her gift of extrasensory perception gets a fresh jolt when a new set of brothers arrives, led by Dante, who ignites feelings of both familiarity and dread within her. Soon she’s embroiled in a deadly conflict between Guardians and Demon Knights, each armed with unique weapons and skills. Sophia is drawn to both Michael and Dante for reasons that she can’t fully comprehend—including some that involve past lives. The climactic scene takes place on Halloween in a haunted house where the horrors are real and the stakes are life and death. The story moves swiftly, fueled by the forbidden romance that develops between Sophia and Michael, and the first-person narration lends Sophia’s account intimacy and immediacy. Vivid descriptions spice up the text, such as when a newly-minted teenage demon plays guitar before an unsuspecting crowd: “his fingers are spiders crawling over strings and frets.” At times, though, the dialogue can be distracting, as it targets YA audiences with trendy allusions such as “Faceboink” and contrivances such as “premature articulation” and “procrasturbating.” However, this classic story of good and evil will still catch and hold readers’ imaginations.
An action-packed, satisfying love story gets this supernatural series off to a rousing start.Pub Date: April 15, 2014
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 403
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 6, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sparse, beautifully drawn story about a teen discovering her heritage.
In this YA graphic novel, an alienated Métis girl learns about her people’s Canadian history.
Métis teenager Echo Desjardins finds herself living in a home away from her mother, attending a new school, and feeling completely lonely as a result. She daydreams in class and wanders the halls listening to a playlist of her mother’s old CDs. At home, she shuts herself up in her room. But when her history teacher begins to lecture about the Pemmican Wars of early 1800s Saskatchewan, Echo finds herself swept back to that time. She sees the Métis people following the bison with their mobile hunting camp, turning the animals’ meat into pemmican, which they sell to the Northwest Company in order to buy supplies for the winter. Echo meets a young girl named Marie, who introduces Echo to the rhythms of Métis life. She finally understands what her Métis heritage actually means. But the joys are short-lived, as conflicts between the Métis and their rivals in the Hudson Bay Company come to a bloody head. The tragic history of her people will help explain the difficulties of the Métis in Echo’s own time, including those of her mother and the teen herself. Accompanied by dazzling art by Henderson (A Blanket of Butterflies, 2017, etc.) and colorist Yaciuk (Fire Starters, 2016, etc.), this tale is a brilliant bit of time travel. Readers are swept back to 19th-century Saskatchewan as fully as Echo herself. Vermette’s (The Break, 2017, etc.) dialogue is sparse, offering a mostly visual, deeply contemplative juxtaposition of the present and the past. Echo’s eventual encounter with her mother (whose fate has been kept from readers up to that point) offers a powerful moment of connection that is both unexpected and affecting. “Are you…proud to be Métis?” Echo asks her, forcing her mother to admit, sheepishly: “I don’t really know much about it.” With this series opener, the author provides a bit more insight into what that means.
A sparse, beautifully drawn story about a teen discovering her heritage.Pub Date: March 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-55379-678-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: HighWater Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A troubling depiction of an unhealthy relationship.
A battered girl and an injured rugby star spark up an ill-advised romance at an Irish secondary school.
Beautiful, waiflike, 15-year-old Shannon has lived her entire life in Ballylaggin. Alternately bullied at school and beaten by her ne’er-do-well father, she’s hopeful for a fresh start at Tommen, a private school. Seventeen-year-old Johnny, who has a hair-trigger temper and a severe groin injury, is used to Dublin’s elite-level rugby but, since his family’s move to County Cork, is now stuck captaining Tommen’s middling team. When Johnny angrily kicks a ball and knocks Shannon unconscious (“a soft female groan came from her lips”), a tentative relationship is born. As the two grow closer, Johnny’s past and Shannon’s present become serious obstacles to their budding love, threatening Shannon’s safety. Shannon’s portrayal feels infantilized (“I looked down at the tiny little female under my arm”), while Johnny comes across as borderline obsessive (“I knew I shouldn’t be touching her, but how the hell could I not?”). Uneven pacing and choppy sentences lead to a sudden climax and an unsatisfyingly abrupt ending. Repetitive descriptions, abundant and misogynistic dialogue (Johnny, to his best friend: “who’s the bitch with a vagina now?”), and graphic violence also weigh down this lengthy tome (considerably trimmed down from its original, self-published length). The cast of lively, well-developed supporting characters, especially Johnny’s best friend and Shannon’s protective older brother, is a bright spot. Major characters read white.
A troubling depiction of an unhealthy relationship. (author’s note, pronunciations, glossary, song moments, playlists) (Romance. 16-18)Pub Date: Nov. 28, 2023
ISBN: 9781728299945
Page Count: 626
Publisher: Bloom Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
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