A rip-roaring, globe-hopping adventure that should appeal to young readers.
A 16-year-old boy stumbles across world-changing discoveries in Cutler’s debut YA SF thriller.
When Tom Griffith’s father—an operative working for the CIA—is suspiciously killed while returning from a mission, his grieving wife, Mary, and kids relocate from Maryland to Southern California to start a new chapter of their lives. What Mary and her kids (including chemistry wunderkind Tom) don’t understand is that before Bill Griffith died, he had discovered two scientific advancements that could forever alter the geopolitical power structure of the world: the ability to stop time and telekinesis (the ability to move objects with one’s mind). As both a mole in the CIA and Chinese operatives endeavor to steal the formulas by whatever means necessary, Tom befriends science prodigy Amy at his new school, and they begin to try to recreate the breakthroughs. With assassins seemingly lurking behind every corner, the teens embark on a wild adventure that will put their lives—and potentially the lives of millions of innocents—at risk. The hook here is the spot-on YA mindset: Cutler discusses complex scientific theories and a complicated international political theater with appropriate seriousness and depth, but also makes the storyline appealing to young readers by introducing a secondary character who is a world-famous pop star (Kim Kardashian even makes an appearance). There are minor flaws, however; descriptions are frequently lacking, giving the narrative a two-dimensional feel in places, and the character development could have been much deeper—particularly in the case of the teen protagonists, who are struggling with their own respective traumas (Tom’s mourning of his father, for example, is only superficially examined). But the relentless pacing and nonstop action more than compensate for these weaknesses. Also noteworthy is Cutler’s wry sense of humor, which is always tonally on point and adds a sense of levity to the otherwise intense storyline. In one sequence, Tom swears in front of his mother; she replies, “please watch your language… and yes, we do need to discourage these assholes.”
A rip-roaring, globe-hopping adventure that should appeal to young readers.Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2025
ISBN: 9781959621744
Page Count: 398
Publisher: Booklocker.com
Review Posted Online: March 12, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A superior entry in the night-on-the-nightmare-ward genre.
A medical student is assigned an overnight shift to observe a Long Island hospital’s psychiatric ward and help with emergencies. You’d never guess what happens next.
Amy Brenner isn’t even interested in psychiatry, the one medical specialty she’s never considered for her own career. Nor is she interested any more in Cameron Berger, the classmate who ended their relationship so that he could spend more time studying, and she’s not pleased to learn that he’s switched his rotation with another student so he can spend some of the next 13 hours persuading Amy to rekindle their romance. Predictably, Cam will be the least of Amy’s troubles. Apart from Dr. Richard Beck and nurse Ramona Dutton, everyone else on Ward D is much more dangerous, from elderly Mary Cummings, whose knitting needles aren’t plastic but sharpened steel, to William Schoenfeld, who’s stopped taking the medications that were supposed to silence the voices telling him to kill people, to Damon Sawyer, who’s confined in Seclusion One and can’t possibly escape, unless a power outage neutralizes the locks. Most threatening of all is Jade Carpenter, whose close friendship with Amy ended eight years ago when Amy turned her in for what ended up being only one of a whole series of thrill crimes. McFadden measures out the complications, revelations, and betrayals with such an expert hand that readers anxiously trying to figure out whom Amy can trust as her goal shifts from ticking off a toilsome requirement to surviving the night may well end up wondering whom they can trust themselves. And isn’t provoking that kind of paranoia what medical thrillers are all about?
A superior entry in the night-on-the-nightmare-ward genre.Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227271
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
Soapy, suspenseful fun.
A remembered horror plunges a pregnant woman into a waking nightmare.
Tegan Werner, 23, barely recalls her one-night stand with married real estate developer Simon Lamar; she only learns Simon’s name after seeing him on the local news five months later. Simon wants nothing to do with the resulting child Tegan now carries and tells his lawyer to negotiate a nondisclosure agreement. A destitute Tegan is all too happy to trade her silence for cash—until a whiff of Simon’s cologne triggers a memory of him drugging and raping her. Distraught and eight months pregnant, Tegan flees her Lewiston, Maine, apartment and drives north in a blizzard, intending to seek comfort and counsel from her older brother, Dennis; instead, she gets lost and crashes, badly injuring her ankle. Tegan is terrified when hulking stranger Hank Thompson stops and extricates her from the wreck, and becomes even more so when he takes her to his cabin rather than the hospital, citing hazardous road conditions. Her anxiety eases somewhat upon meeting Hank’s wife, Polly—a former nurse who settles Tegan in a basement hospital room originally built for Polly’s now-deceased mother. Polly vows to call 911 as soon as the phones and power return, but when that doesn’t happen, Tegan becomes convinced that Hank is forcing Polly to hold her prisoner. Tegan doesn’t know the half of it. McFadden unspools her twisty tale via a first-person-present narration that alternates between Tegan and Polly, grounding character while elevating tension. Coincidence and frustratingly foolish assumptions fuel the plot, but readers able to suspend disbelief are in for a wild ride. A purposefully ambiguous, forward-flashing prologue hints at future homicide, establishing stakes from the jump.
Soapy, suspenseful fun.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227325
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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