An intense gorefest that will please series fans.
Star-crossed teenaged girlfriends crank up the steam as gangsters, vampires, and drug-spawned monsters leave the streets of Jazz Age Harlem awash in gore in this duology closer.
While blood flows, spurts, or sprays on nearly every page amid a rising tide of gruesomely explicit dismemberments, sundered best friends Layla Quinn, a fanged reaper, who’s struggling to control her blood fury, and Elise Saint, the mortal scion of harsh antireaper regulators, slowly circle back toward one another. But as Layla puts it with both literal and metaphorical accuracy, “There is something rotting underneath Harlem.” Indeed, hardly have the two reunited at last in a passionate whirl of shuddering embraces, than an army of ravening evolved reapers arises. They’re made from human corpses and are dedicated to the forceful assertion of equal rights and housing opportunities for vampires of both the dead and undead sort. Can the smoldering duo form an alliance of regular reapers, gangsters, and ordinary humans to counter the threat and take out its sinister instigator? When it comes to Shakespearean references, Hamlet is just the beginning, and an opening chapter sentence declaring “this ends in blood” applies to far more than just the tragically romantic close. Most cast members are Black.
An intense gorefest that will please series fans. (Fantasy. 15-18)Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9781728297903
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
Only marginally intriguing.
In a remote part of Utah, in a “temple of excellence,” the best of the best are recruited to nurture their talents.
Redemption Preparatory is a cross between the Vatican and a top-secret research facility: The school is rooted in Christian ideology (but very few students are Christian), Mass is compulsory, cameras capture everything, and “maintenance” workers carry Tasers. When talented poet Emma disappears, three students, distrusting of the school administration, launch their own investigation. Brilliant chemist Neesha believes Emma has run away to avoid taking the heat for the duo’s illegal drug enterprise. Her boyfriend, an athlete called Aiden, naturally wants to find her. Evan, a chess prodigy who relies on patterns and has difficulty processing social signals, believes he knows Emma better than anyone. While the school is an insidious character on its own and the big reveal is slightly psychologically disturbing, Evan’s positioning as a tragic hero with an uncertain fate—which is connected to his stalking of Emma (even before her disappearance)—is far more unsettling. The ’90s setting provides the backdrop for tongue-in-cheek technological references but doesn’t do anything for the plot. Student testimonials and voice-to-text transcripts punctuate the three-way third-person narration that alternates among Neesha, Evan, and Aiden. Emma, Aiden, and Evan are assumed to be white; Neesha is Indian. Students are from all over the world, including Asia and the Middle East.
Only marginally intriguing. (Mystery. 15-18)Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-266203-3
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readable but not remarkable, yet another grimdark political fantasy.
Prison life gets even more punishing in this fantasy series opener.
Seventeen-year-old Kiva Meridan is 10 years into a life sentence at “death prison” Zalindov. She’s succeeded her late father as the titular prison healer, dosing patients with herbs and possessing extensive, modern medical knowledge of bacteria, viruses, and immune systems. Aside from cheerful innocent/MacGuffin Tipp, Kiva befriends few fellow prisoners and even fewer guards, most of whom are harshly abusive. While Naari, a new female guard, and Jaren, a handsome new prisoner, chip away at her frozen facade, Kiva volunteers to undertake an epic Trial by Ordeal on behalf of the Rebel Queen, the newest political prisoner. Under pressure to save her friends, the Rebel Queen, and herself—and losing hope of rescue or release—Kiva faces four elemental magic Trials sans innate talent. In between grueling, gruesome spectacles, Kiva also acts as an epidemiologist, tracking down an illness plaguing the prisoners. The claustrophobic setting—evoking the horrors of a Siberian gulag or Nazi concentration camp—exudes dread and brutality; levity and lightness are minimal. A predictable romance ensues, and generic fantasy clichés abound—royals and rebels, lost heirs, vague magic—hastily concluded with a trite plot twist and setup for a sequel. Most main characters read as White; there is a diversity of skin tones in this fantasy world.
Readable but not remarkable, yet another grimdark political fantasy. (map) (Fantasy. 15-adult)Pub Date: April 13, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-358-43455-9
Page Count: 416
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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