Beyond climactic.
This follow-up to After Life (2022) completes the Blue Bloods series offshoot duology.
It’s been two months since Schuyler Cervantes-Chase and Jack Force stopped Lucifer from carrying out a plan to exterminate all mortal Red Bloods in Manhattan with a plague. However, Jack’s twin brother, Max, was captured, and their friend Kingsley Martin was killed. Jack went searching for Max, and Schuyler hasn’t heard from him since. Without her bondmate, she’s relied more heavily on Oliver Golding-Chang, her human Familiar and best friend, for emotional comfort. Her secret life as a half-blood vampire, one of the immortal Blue Bloods, is complicated enough on a regular day. But now there’s a new girl at school, Aoife Hayward, and her grunge fashion sense stands out from the crowd at exclusive Duchesne. She also catches Schuyler’s attention as a possible supernatural threat. Who—or what—could she be? Meanwhile, Jack and Max are dealing with different types of confinement. This volume brings the journeys of Schuyler and her true love, Jack, to a close (at least in this parallel universe) while still being accessible to readers new to this world. De la Cruz has added a lot of conceptual layers to this fictional world, and not everything is wrapped up neatly and tidily, but those who have followed the series will likely feel satisfied in seeing off these characters. The author once again delivers supernatural melodrama that’s both high-spirited and absorbing. Contextual clues point to some ethnic diversity.
Beyond climactic. (Paranormal. 12-18)Pub Date: July 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781368067003
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter.
After a Nigerian British girl goes off to an exclusive boarding school that seems to prey on less-privileged students, she discovers there might be some truth behind an urban legend.
Ife Adebola joins the Urban Achievers scholarship program at pricey, high-pressure Nithercott School, arriving shortly after a student called Leon mysteriously disappeared. Gossip says he’s a victim of the glowing-eyed Changing Man who targets the lonely, leaving them changed. Ife doesn’t believe in the myth, but amid the stresses of Nithercott’s competitive, privileged, majority-white environment, where she is constantly reminded of her state school background, she does miss her friends and family. When Malika, a fellow Black scholarship student, disappears and then returns, acting strangely devoid of personality, Ife worries the Changing Man is real—and that she’s next. Ife joins forces with classmate Bijal and Benny, Leon’s younger brother, to uncover the truth about who the Changing Man is and what he wants. Culminating in a detailed, gory, and extended climactic battle, this verbose thriller tempts readers with a nefarious mystery involving racial and class-based violence but never quite lives up to its potential and peters out thematically by its explosive finale. However, this debut offers highly visually evocative and eerie descriptions of characters and events and will appeal to fans of creature horror, social commentary, and dark academia.
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781250868138
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Heart-pounding.
A gay, transgender brujo with burgeoning powers seeks answers about his cousin’s death.
Sixteen-year-old Yadriel also wishes for acknowledgement from his community but unexpectedly finds himself entangled in the unresolved wishes of a strong-willed, good-looking spirit. He descends from a long line of brujx who have been granted magic power by Lady Death to heal the living and to guide spirits into the afterlife. Although he’s grown up surrounded by a close-knit community, Yadriel feels alone, excluded indefinitely from a sacred rite of passage because he is transgender. When he senses that his cousin Miguel has died suddenly but the family can’t locate him, Yadriel sees an opportunity to prove to everyone he’s a true brujo by solving the mystery and releasing his cousin’s lost spirit. His plan quickly falls apart, as he accidentally summons the spirit of Julian Diaz, a boy with unfinished business who died the same day as Miguel. Both the romance and mystery burn slow and hot until the climax. Stakes begin high, and the intensity only increases with a looming deadline and a constant risk that Julian might lose himself, turning maligno. The cast of characters represents a diversity of Latinx identities sharing a community in East Los Angeles. Julian is Colombian while Yadriel is Cuban and Mexican. Their romance provides joyful, ground-breaking representation for gay, transgender boys.
Heart-pounding. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-25046-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Swoon Reads/Macmillan
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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