By the final cliffhanger, readers will be primed for a sequel; the trick will be getting them there.
Eighth grader Jack Carlson may well be the chosen one of prophecy—but not the way readers might think.
After his best friend presents a poorly received class report on the mysterious titular institution, Jack inexplicably finds himself deposited on its doorstep. One instructor proclaims Jack to be the long-awaited Guardian, prophesied to kill the Reaper King, but the rest, more skeptical, give Jack and his hastily assembled team just three days to prove themselves. As the deadline looms, everything starts to go horribly, disastrously wrong….This may come from an evangelical Christian imprint, but any religious message here is kept strictly subtextual. Jack, apparently white, is a nice enough but somewhat bland protagonist; his teammates are more diverse (cued by naming convention and mention of skin color) and agreeably quirky, if a bit one-note. While it’s difficult to see a secretive school that kidnaps children to train as “borderline psychopath” soldiers through brainwashing, torturous interrogations, and mandatory death matches as a force for good, their opponents are undoubtedly irredeemably monstrous. Unfortunately, the first part of the story is a tedious agglomerate of contrived exposition, clichéd set pieces, and cringeworthy coincidences; it’s a pity because about halfway through, the narrative suddenly twists into an intense thrill ride, with battles and betrayals and (literally) an apocalyptic body count, concluding in a clever subversion of that chosen-one trope.
By the final cliffhanger, readers will be primed for a sequel; the trick will be getting them there. (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4002-1534-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Tommy Nelson
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high...
Two parallel stories, one of a Syrian boy from Aleppo fleeing war, and another of a white American boy, son of a NATO contractor, dealing with the challenges of growing up, intersect at a house in Brussels.
Ahmed lost his father while crossing the Mediterranean. Alone and broke in Europe, he takes things into his own hands to get to safety but ends up having to hide in the basement of a residential house. After months of hiding, he is discovered by Max, a boy of similar age and parallel high integrity and courage, who is experiencing his own set of troubles learning a new language, moving to a new country, and being teased at school. In an unexpected turn of events, the two boys and their new friends Farah, a Muslim Belgian girl, and Oscar, a white Belgian boy, successfully scheme for Ahmed to go to school while he remains in hiding the rest of the time. What is at stake for Ahmed is immense, and so is the risk to everyone involved. Marsh invites art and history to motivate her protagonists, drawing parallels to gentiles who protected Jews fleeing Nazi terror and citing present-day political news. This well-crafted and suspenseful novel touches on the topics of refugees and immigrant integration, terrorism, Islam, Islamophobia, and the Syrian war with sensitivity and grace.
A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high values in the face of grave risk and succeed in drawing goodwill from others. (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-30757-6
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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