A gripping, visceral, post-apocalyptic story brimming with adventure and heart.
A teenage girl embarks on a dangerous journey to find her mother in Parent’s debut YA novel.
The world after the Fall is bleak. Environmental destruction is widespread; powerful drugs called LoTabs are widely circulating; books have mostly vanished; and the militant Green Mountain Boys keep close watch for anything suspicious. June’s memories of a mysterious barn fire that left her horribly scarred six years ago are patchy (“Bales of hay rose up around me, their shadows moving like monsters when the flame guttered”), but she knows it was the last day she saw her mother. Ever since, she’s been staying at a ramshackle house in the Hollow with a couple who look after her in exchange for her labor. The one bright light in June’s life is Thomas, an orphan who’s become like a kid brother to her. One day, June sees Jacob, a weathered town deputy, sparking the return of hazy memories—she realizes he’s the one who pulled her from the blaze. When a circus rolls into the area, June and Thomas are determined to track the troupe down, hoping to get information about June’s mother (traveling circuses are one of the few sources of news in this world). But the trek is perilous: There’s a dead girl in the woods, someone’s killing sheep, and solar panels are being destroyed. The closer June gets to learning the truth, the more secrets she uncovers. In captivating, sharply observed prose, Parent strikes a skillful balance between hope and despair; when all seems lost, flickers of light illuminate the darkness. Though much has changed in the narrative’s foreboding future world, the characters’ struggles—the beating heart of the story—are deeply relatable. Oddball circus performers, unsavory lawbreakers, and flawed do-gooders round out the lively cast; the fiercely loyal June, and Jacob, whose bad habits fail to dull his sorrow, will stay with readers long after the final page. Aimed at a YA audience, the novel will also appeal to adults who enjoy character-driven fiction and adventure.
A gripping, visceral, post-apocalyptic story brimming with adventure and heart.Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9781646034840
Page Count: 266
Publisher: Fitzroy Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 16, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An epic fantasy with timeless themes and unforgettable characters.
Two young people save the world and all the magic in it in this series opener.
When tall, dark-haired, white-skinned Christopher Forrester goes to stay with his grandfather in Scotland, he ventures to the top of a forbidden hill and discovers astonishing magical creatures. His grandfather explains that Christopher’s family are guardians of the “way through” to the Archipelago, where the Glimourie Tree grows—the source of glimourie, or the world’s magic. Black-haired, olive-skinned Mal Arvorian, a girl from the Archipelago, is being pursued by a murderer, and she asks Christopher for help, launching them both on a wild, dangerous journey to discover why the glimourie is disappearing and how to stop it. Together with a part-nereid woman, a ratatoska, a dragon, and a Berserker, they face an odyssey of dangerous tasks to find the Immortal, the only one who can reverse the draining of magic. Like Lyra and Will from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, Mal and Christopher sacrifice their innocence for experience, meeting every challenge with depthless courage until they finally reach the maze at the heart of it all. Rundell throws myriad obstacles in her characters’ way, but she gives them tools both tangible (a casapasaran, which always points the way home, and the glamry blade, which cuts through anything) and intangible (the desire “to protect something worth protecting” and an “insistence that the world is worth loving”). Final art not seen.
An epic fantasy with timeless themes and unforgettable characters. (map, bestiary) (Fantasy. 10-16)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9780593809860
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes.
The Plague has left a population divided between Elites and Ordinaries—those who have powers and those who don’t; now, an Ordinary teen fights for her life.
Paedyn Gray witnessed the king kill her father five years ago, and she’s been thieving and sleeping rough ever since, all while faking Psychic abilities. When she inadvertently saves the life of Prince Kai, she becomes embroiled in the Purging Trials, a competition to commemorate the sickness that killed most of the kingdom’s Ordinaries. Kai’s duties as the future Enforcer include eradicating any remaining Ordinaries, and these Trials are his chance to prove that he’s internalized his brutal training. But Kai can’t help but find Pae’s blue eyes, silver hair, and unabashed attitude enchanting. She likewise struggles to resist his stormy gray eyes, dark hair, and rakish behavior, even as they’re pitted against each other in the Trials and by the king himself. Scenes and concepts that are strongly reminiscent of the Hunger Games fall flat: They aren’t bolstered by the original’s heart or worldbuilding logic that would have justified a few extreme story elements. Illogical leaps and inconsistent characterizations abound, with lighthearted romantic interludes juxtaposed against genocide, child abuse, and sadism. These elements, which are not sufficiently addressed, combined with the use of ableist language, cannot be erased by any amount of romantic banter. Main characters are cued white; the supporting cast has some brown-skinned characters.
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes. (map) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9798987380406
Page Count: 538
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
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