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Oct 1, 2024 | 
kirkusreviews.com | Holly Black |Maija Barnett
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.
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Aug 6, 2024 | 
kirkusreviews.com | Holly Black |Akana Phenix
An absorbing fantasy novel with dystopian themes that explores human endurance in its varied forms. Two young women, trapped on different sides of a tyrannical regime, become connected through their shared oppression. Eighteen-year-old Coa Rangecroft has been forced to enter the Great Hunt, an annual tradition that takes place over the course of seven days in the totalitarian Arctic nation called the Allied Force.
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Jul 30, 2024 | 
kirkusreviews.com | Alexandra Bracken |Holly Black
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.
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Jul 19, 2024 | 
kirkusreviews.com | Erin Craig |Holly Black
An intriguingly conceptualized story that struggles to create a compelling cast of characters. Hazel Lafitte’s birth doesn’t feel like a gift to her parents, who already struggle to support their 12 other children. But to everyone else, a 13th child is a rare and intriguing thing, and Hazel is promised to the Dreaded End, the god of death, whom she will come to know as Merrick. Merrick plans for Hazel to become a gifted healer and bestows upon her the surname Trépas.
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Mar 23, 2024 | 
kirkusreviews.com | Holly Black
A spellbinding narrative of betrayal, redemption, and the enduring magic of maternal love. A bewitching rendition of “Snow White” with bold Black women at its heart. Sixteen-year-old Princess Eve, who’s called “the Queen’s fury” by the people of Queen’s Bridge, was born with magic into a destiny that’s filled with foreboding. She’s been groomed to fulfill her true purpose: to slay the Knight—“a myth made real. A monster”—who haunts and terrorizes the queendom.
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Mar 23, 2024 | 
kirkusreviews.com | Tara Sim |Holly Black
A young woman must resurrect a prince whose return to the throne could restore balance to the kingdom. After successfully—with a few caveats—reviving a dead dog, gutsy Kajal is determined to do the same for Lasya, her beloved deceased sister. But when Lasya turns into a bhuta (a vengeful, murderous ghost) and takes out her rage on those around Kajal, the latter is accused by the townsfolk of being a dakini, or witch, and imprisoned.
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Mar 11, 2024 | 
audiofilemagazine.com | Holly Black
Barrett Leddy narrates the final audiobook in the Stolen Heir duology, told from the perspective of Prince Oak, who has been captured. Trapped in prison, he is hopelessly in love with his captor, Queen Wren. Leddy captures Oak's desperate conviction and smooth talking, both of which are intended to prove that Wren has his loyalty.
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Dec 26, 2023 | 
kirkusreviews.com | Rebecca Ross |Holly Black |Marc J. Gregson
A thrilling and brilliantly realized series opener; readers will clamor for the next installment. To save his younger sister from their villainous uncle, a 16-year-old enters a perilous contest that involves killing massive sky serpents. Anyone living on the socially stratified floating islands can rise in status by dueling or entering a Trade. Conrad, once a High, is demoted after his uncle kills his father and assumes the role of Archduke.
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Nov 26, 2023 | 
kirkusreviews.com | Katherine Quinn |Rebecca Ross |Holly Black
An atmospheric and promising first installment. A series opener blending fantasy and horror with an undercurrent of romance. The sudden disappearance 50 years ago of the Sun Goddess, Raina, left the realm of Asidia awash in moonlight and misery. The annual Calling drafts boys, such as 18-year-old Kiara’s sickly brother, Liam, into the Knights of Eternal Star, who then venture into the accursed land of the Mist in search of answers.
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Nov 6, 2023 | 
kirkusreviews.com | Richard Harland |Rebecca Ross |Holly Black
Creative and immersive but let down by inconsistencies. An angel and a teenage boy must work together to battle a soulless evil intent on destruction. Fifteen-year-old Ferren has only known life as one of the People, a “primitive” population on a post-apocalyptic Earth, continually threatened by the war waged by the armies of Heaven. As part of their alliance with the militaristic Humens that Farren’s community in Australia lives in fear of, they are expected to surrender a member each year.
