A lesson on death and attachment that’s based on an interesting premise but fails to find its footing.
A Burbank, California, boy goes on an incredible journey to find his will to live again after a tragic event.
A year after his father’s passing, 17-year-old brown-skinned Hazeem, who’s gay, remains deeply affected by the loss. His connection with his mother has deteriorated, and he stays home, uninterested in anything and distanced from his closest friends—Holly, Yamany, and Jack—who are like “three ghosts” to him. When Nana, Hazeem’s Muslim paternal grandmother and the one remaining person he feels understands him, suddenly dies, Hazeem utters words that would grant her extra life. This brings him face to face with Time—and the possible destruction of the world as he knows it. Hazeem must come to terms with loss, face those he loves, and make an emotionally wrenching choice. Can he find happiness amid heartbreak? The novel explores important themes of loss and the struggle for peace of mind, but the confusing narrative requires effort to untangle. The inconsistent characterization of Time along with their nebulous rules only adds to the complexity. Though his journey is marked by satisfying personal growth, readers will wish for more depth from Hazeem’s relationship with Time. Ultimately, the various storylines and themes in the book are ambitious but do not coalesce into a satisfying whole.
A lesson on death and attachment that’s based on an interesting premise but fails to find its footing. (Speculative fiction. 13-17)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781547609284
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Mouths have never run so dry at the idea of thirst.
When a calamitous drought overtakes southern California, a group of teens must struggle to keep their lives and their humanity in this father-son collaboration.
When the Tap-Out hits and the state’s entire water supply runs dry, 16-year-old Alyssa Morrow and her little brother, Garrett, ration their Gatorade and try to be optimistic. That is, until their parents disappear, leaving them completely alone. Their neighbor Kelton McCracken was born into a survivalist family, but what use is that when it’s his family he has to survive? Kelton is determined to help Alyssa and Garrett, but with desperation comes danger, and he must lead them and two volatile new acquaintances on a perilous trek to safety and water. Occasionally interrupted by “snapshots” of perspectives outside the main plot, the narrative’s intensity steadily rises as self-interest turns deadly and friends turn on each other. No one does doom like Neal Shusterman (Thunderhead, 2018, etc.)—the breathtakingly jagged brink of apocalypse is only overshadowed by the sense that his dystopias lie just below the surface of readers’ fragile reality, a few thoughtless actions away. He and his debut novelist son have crafted a world of dark thirst and fiery desperation, which, despite the tendrils of hope that thread through the conclusion, feels alarmingly near to our future. There is an absence of racial markers, leaving characters’ identities open.
Mouths have never run so dry at the idea of thirst. (Thriller. 13-17)Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4814-8196-0
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
Bound to be popular.
A suddenly trendy trope—conflict and romance between members of conquering and enslaved races—enlivened by fantasy elements loosely drawn from Arabic tradition (another trend!).
In an original, well-constructed fantasy world (barring some lazy naming), the Scholars have lived under Martial rule for 500 years, downtrodden and in many cases enslaved. Scholar Laia has spent a lifetime hiding her connection to the Resistance—her parents were its leaders—but when her grandparents are killed and her brother’s captured by Masks, the eerie, silver-faced elite soldiers of the Martial Empire, Laia must go undercover as a slave to the terrifying Commandant of Blackcliff Military Academy, where Martials are trained for battle. Meanwhile, Elias, the Commandant’s not-at-all-beloved son, wants to run away from Blackcliff, until he is named an Aspirant for the throne by the mysterious red-eyed Augurs. Predictably, action, intrigue, bloodshed and some pounding pulses follow; there’s betrayal and a potential love triangle or two as well. Sometimes-lackluster prose and a slight overreliance on certain kinds of sexual violence as a threat only slightly diminish the appeal created by familiar (but not predictable) characters and a truly engaging if not fully fleshed-out fantasy world.
Bound to be popular. (Fantasy. 13 & up)Pub Date: April 28, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-59514-803-2
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2015
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