Kirkus: See the girl on the train, the white one “with the frizzy red hair and funny mouth”? That’s 16-year-old Willa Parker. Willa has a simple two-point plan: move to the East Coast…and kill herself.
Willa leaves her hometown of What Cheer, Iowa (you heard that right), to attend The Pembroke School and (presumably) go on to Princeton, because her wealthy economist mother (who divorced Willa’s father and left them with nothing) says she “should.” Willa’s plan is derailed when she meets the ultraprivileged, uber-hip Remy Taft (yes, related to the president), the oddly friendless queen of Pembroke. The girls develop a close friendship, complete with witty-cute banter, a late-night joy ride on a stolen golf cart, and frequent Ecstasy trips. As Remy pushes Willa out of her comfort zone, Willa forgets her suicide plan, but it soon becomes apparent self-absorbed Remy has several secrets of her own. As Willa tries to save her best friend from destroying herself, she’s also figuring out whether or not she’s neighboring Witherspoon Prep hottie Milo Hesse’s girlfriend. Surrounded by wealth, Willa often questions the unfairness of privilege; her scholarship status and Midwest origins often make her feel inferior and out of place. Her first-person narration is self-deprecating, deeply thoughtful, and thoroughly funny, with a sometimes-chiding direct address that pulls readers into her confidence.
Snarky and painfully astute. But in a good way.
B&N SFF Blog: Bishop has built a fascinating world, populated it with unforgettable characters, and set them crashing together in exciting action sequences, all while slowly teasing out an overarching plot that is poised for explosive expansion and raising enough questions that we simply must keep reading to find out what happens next. […] This is a series that welcomes binge-reading, actively rooting for your heroes, booing and hissing at the villains you love to hate, and throwing popcorn at the screen when the other shoe finally drops, and drops, and drops.
B&N SF&F Blog: Bishop’s fourth entry in the complex Others universe sees things getting increasingly tense between humanity and the Others, even as the latter’s alliance with the human blood prophets led by Meg Corbyn promises a brighter future for both. Treaties start to unravel when the radical group Humans First and Last steps up attacks on the Othersbut their brutal efforts begin to wake forces more powerful and more ancient than the shape-shifters and vampires, putting both humanity and the Others in danger, one Meg’s power of prophecy may not be able to neutralize in time. Bishop brings a wealth of rich detail to her universe, taking cues from today’s headlines and using them to create a fictional setting that feels all too real.
Shelf Awareness: Shaun David Hutchinson’s bracingly smart and unusual YA novel blends existential despair with exploding planets.
Publishers Weekly: In the beginning of this new full-length entry in Wells’s Raksura series (following 2012’s The Siren Depths), the entire community of Indigo Cloud, home to a shape-shifting race called the Raksura, has a nightmare of their world being destroyed by their archenemies, the predatory Fell. To prevent that, Jade, Moon (her consort), and other Raksura must join a group of archaeologists from several races to investigate an ancient site that could destroy them all. After setting up the danger, the novel takes too long to get the questing party to the mysterious island, losing its impact among vague distrust, political squabbles, and minor dangers that overshadow how unearthly this world is. However, when the Fell do show up and bring a new wrinkle to their characterization, the dramatic battles, tough decisions, and character dynamics shine through. Filtering the story mostly through the semi-outsider Moon, Wells overcomes pacing flaws to keep this series going strong with an imaginative world of engaging characters.
Shelf Awareness: Robert Jackson Bennett’s sequel to 2014’s City of Stairs is thrilling, deeply thoughtful about the nature of war, and just odd enough, while still offering analogues to our own world to remain familiar.