After Will’s older brother, Shawn, is shot and killed, Will knows he has to follow the rules: Don’t cry, don’t snitch, get revenge.
The rules are so old it’s hard to know where they came from, but Will knows they are not meant to be broken. He gets Shawn’s gun and heads downstairs in the elevator to shoot Riggs, his brother’s former friend, who he is convinced is responsible. As the elevator door opens on each floor, Will is confronted by people from his past who were also victims of gun violence. They question Will’s plan and motivation, and although Will was certain it was Riggs when he first got into the elevator, at some point he isn’t so sure. The ghosts, their truths, and the fact that he has never held a gun before make the decision to enact revenge that much more frightening. Based on Reynolds’ 2017 award-winning verse novel of the same name, this full-color graphic adaptation will pull in both old and new readers. Novgorodoff’s ink-and-watercolor images bring a softness to the text that contrasts with the violent deaths and the stark choice Will faces. Reynolds’ fans will be pleased to see some of the original dialogue and narration remain, though edited to keep the story emotion-packed and the pace as swift as the elevator ride. Characters are Black.
A moving rendition that stands on its own. (Graphic fiction.12-18)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-4495-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Caitlyn Dlouhy/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Aug. 18, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Riveting, brutal and beautifully told.
25
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A devastating tale of greed and secrets springs from the summer that tore Cady’s life apart.
Cady Sinclair’s family uses its inherited wealth to ensure that each successive generation is blond, beautiful and powerful. Reunited each summer by the family patriarch on his private island, his three adult daughters and various grandchildren lead charmed, fairy-tale lives (an idea reinforced by the periodic inclusions of Cady’s reworkings of fairy tales to tell the Sinclair family story). But this is no sanitized, modern Disney fairy tale; this is Cinderella with her stepsisters’ slashed heels in bloody glass slippers. Cady’s fairy-tale retellings are dark, as is the personal tragedy that has led to her examination of the skeletons in the Sinclair castle’s closets; its rent turns out to be extracted in personal sacrifices. Brilliantly, Lockhart resists simply crucifying the Sinclairs, which might make the family’s foreshadowed tragedy predictable or even satisfying. Instead, she humanizes them (and their painful contradictions) by including nostalgic images that showcase the love shared among Cady, her two cousins closest in age, and Gat, the Heathcliff-esque figure she has always loved. Though increasingly disenchanted with the Sinclair legacy of self-absorption, the four believe family redemption is possible—if they have the courage to act. Their sincere hopes and foolish naïveté make the teens’ desperate, grand gesture all that much more tragic.
Riveting, brutal and beautifully told. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: May 13, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-385-74126-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2014
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FAMILY | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES
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PROFILES
Disney adaptations are familiar, but this title marks a new gambit: a novel sequel that accepts the source movie, Brave, as canon.
Merida, now nearly 20, has negotiated a truce with her mother (they never talk about betrothals or marriage) and traveled the kingdom learning new things. But little has changed otherwise: The triplets are still a force of chaos, Merida prefers archery to embroidery, the kingdom is at peace, and magic is at rest. That is, until Feradach, the god who brings ruin in order to make room for growth, threatens to destroy everything Merida loves unless she can change her family enough to end their stagnation. This is still clearly a fairy-tale world, but Stiefvater’s understanding of medieval history (briefly detailed in the author’s note) grounds it, as does the very believable nature of Merida’s conflict: Saving what she loves means transforming it beyond what she knows. The episodic structure as Merida takes on three journeys, each with different family members, moves more slowly than the movie, but the depth of characterization—as shown in Feradach and Queen Elinor in particular—is nuanced and noteworthy. Readers who spent their childhoods watching Merida engage with magic will readily fall under her spell again as she negotiates the hardest challenge of all: growing up. All characters are assumed White.
A different kind of fairy tale, for older and wiser readers. (Historical fantasy. 12-18)Pub Date: May 3, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-368-07134-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Disney Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
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