The young come to the rescue of the future as this series reaches its celebratory climax.
In the conclusion to Deeb’s YA SF series, a brilliant young hacker and her friends strive to purge evil forces that have corrupted an amazing technocratic utopia located below the ground.
In a future beset by climate-change strife in the “Aboves” zone, Southern California teenager and math prodigy (and recreational super-hacker) Dorothy “Doro” Campbell had been initiated into a secretive society called Seneca. Operating out of a vast and advanced subterranean complex (with satellite installations around the world), Seneca ostensibly grooms elite youths to become the saviors of the endangered Earth. In reality, however, the place has been compromised by amoral, power-hungry corporate forces with a different agenda. Doro, aided by her biotechnologist boyfriend, Dominic, and a few other trusted allies, has uncovered evidence of nanotechnology surveillance, media lies, and mind control. She has also investigated the mysterious disappearance of her father, Johnny, who had just discovered a solution to heal the atmosphere’s sundered ozone layer. In this installment, Doro emerges from a 54-day coma, a side-effect of a neural attack courtesy of the sinister Flex Corporation. Doro and Dom are mentally wired into an online connection with other humans throughout Seneca. This is a sword that cuts both ways: The duo can virtually travel anywhere and sense conspiracies (such as an ambitious Mars settlement-terraforming scheme meant to extend Seneca’s totalitarian rule to another planet), but at the same time they are vulnerable to nefarious traps and digital fail-safes in the system. With hidden allies emerging from all directions, can the tide be turned? This is very much a gang’s-all-here cast reunion of the various heroes, villains, and in-betweens from throughout Deeb’s series, many proclaiming slogans like “The time has come for us to take back the tools of oppression. Help us reshape the world” in pep-rally proliferation. The “science” aspect of the narrative is fairly indistinguishable from magic, but the author ably depicts the exhilaration of dawning mass-awareness in a shared consciousness and reliably delivers the SF genre’s seemingly mandatory messages of resilience, eco-justice, and girl power as the saga reaches an upbeat conclusion.
The young come to the rescue of the future as this series reaches its celebratory climax.Pub Date: May 5, 2025
ISBN: 9781734201635
Page Count: 196
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Raw, delicate, and deeply caring.
When Death-Cast doesn’t call, fate intertwines the lives of two boys, both haunted by their pasts and with futures they can’t escape.
In this third installment of the series that opened with 2017’s They Both Die at the End, Paz Dario waits every night for Death-Cast to call—as it should have for his father nearly 10 years ago, when Paz shot him to save his mother’s life. But the call never comes. Death-Cast killed Paz’s dreams of an acting career: No one will hire him now because the world sees him as a villain. When Paz tries (not for the first time) to put an end to his suffering, an unexpected encounter with Alano Rosa, the heir of Death-Cast, stops him. Both in a place of desperation, Alano and Paz sign a contract to live for Begin Days instead of waiting for their End Days. As suspenseful and emotionally wrenching as the previous titles in the series, this new installment explores heavy themes of abuse, mental health, self-harm, and suicide. Paz grapples with a recent diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. Silvera surrounds Alano and Paz with a web of complex relationships. Although the protagonists fall fast for one another and form a deep connection over Alano’s desire to support Paz, Silvera emphasizes the importance of professional help. Both Alano and Paz have Puerto Rican heritage. The cliffhanger ending promises more to come.
Raw, delicate, and deeply caring. (content warning, resources) (Speculative fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780063240858
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
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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