Paced like a television police procedural, with flashes of epiphany, false leads, and race-against-time dangers, this...
Sherlock Holmes, if Holmes were a biracial, at-risk, 16-year-old slacker—a genius stoner who consorts with burglars and homeless dropouts.
Garvie is many things: a math whiz and certified genius with a photographic memory; a layabout who rarely goes to class; a smartarse; "a rational thinker, precise and unsentimental." His friends call him Sherlock and Puzzle Boy. He's also the ex-boyfriend of Chloe Dow, a violet-eyed, busty, charismatic, unpopular—and now dead—blonde white girl. Chloe's murder knocks Garvie out of his bored semistupor. Despite his mother's threats to move the family to her native Barbados, Garvie throws himself into the investigation with all his reckless brilliance. Detective Inspector Singh, the Sikh police officer investigating Chloe's murder, is torn between exasperation and reluctant gratitude for the boy's Holmes-ian deductions. Garvie ponders seemingly unrelated clues—a black Porsche, a shopping list, ugly lime-green–and-orange running shoes—and puts together a disturbing story of victimization. Girls and women in Garvie's world seem mostly to be ineffectual, oversexed, or victims of violent and sexually predatory men. Meanwhile, though Garvie himself is a welcome mixed-race detective, several of the other characters are drawn with stale, albeit affectionate stereotypes.
Paced like a television police procedural, with flashes of epiphany, false leads, and race-against-time dangers, this satisfying whodunit overcomes its characterization shortcomings. (Mystery. 13-15)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-338-03642-8
Page Count: 432
Publisher: David Fickling/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
There’s some originality here, though it’s hard to unearth amid all the melodrama
An illegitimate girl who hopes to find her creative passion may be connected to another kingdom’s magical history.
At 10, white, orphaned Brienna was brought to Magnalia House. For the last seven years she’s studied to become an arden, an apprentice passion, with the goal of finding her patron. The arden-sisters study art, dramatics, music, wit, and knowledge; Brienna, who has no true vocation, has eccentrically studied in all the fields. Though she doesn’t truly belong among the talented (and somewhat racially diverse) noble girls of Magnalia House, they are her beloved friends. Perhaps once she’s passioned, she can even act on her romantic feelings for the white knowledge master. But Brienna’s having strange visions lately; could they be ancestral memories of an unknown forbear from the neighboring country? What with romance, jealousy, family drama, betrayals, ancient magical history, and characters with multiple secret identities, there’s a nigh-constant pitch of throbbing…well, passion. A voice is like “tamed thunder,” and hair is like “a stream of silver.” Malapropisms abound (“punctures of laughter”; “her beauty warbled by the mullioned windows”). Oddly, most of the shocking revelations of back story are openly detailed in the lengthy family trees at the novel’s opening.
There’s some originality here, though it’s hard to unearth amid all the melodrama . (Fantasy. 13-15)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-247134-5
Page Count: 464
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2017
An attempted twist on The Hunger Games
If the world is full of vampires, how do the humans survive?
Gene's a heper: one of the disgusting endangered species that sweats, can't see in the dark and don't have fangs. He's lived this long by disguising himself as a real person, never smiling or laughing or napping where he can be seen; gobbling bloody raw meat with his classmates; showing a stoic, expressionless face at all times. Appearing emotionless is trickier than usual when the nation announces a Heper Hunt. Every citizen of the nation will be entered into a lottery, and a lucky few will be selected to hunt the last remaining hepers to the death. When Gene is selected (of course Gene is selected), he's terrified: Training with the other lottery winners at the Heper Institute, he'll have no opportunity to scrub off the sweat, body hair, plaque and other evidence of his vile human nature. If the vampires realize there is a human among them, he'll be torn to pieces before he can blink. Luckily, Gene seems to have an unlikely ally at the Institute: Ashley June, a classmate of his who has secrets of her own. While the worldbuilding is thin and frequently nonsensical, this grotesque and bloody construction of a vampire world will appeal to readers who've been craving gore over romance with their vampires. Perhaps the sequel will bring the illogical parts together.
An attempted twist on The Hunger Games . (Paranormal adventure. 13-15)Pub Date: May 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-250-00514-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
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