![]() It's exceedingly readable, timely and also has a satisfying resolution. I think this will be a good one to take along on vacay this year. Not to give anything big away, I have to admit that I found two children particularly well done, Emma Z and Atik. It culminates in a cringe-worthy public spectacle which serves to bring all the parents back to sanity and refocuses them on the important things they've lost sight of along the way. These people were pretty much all in to the point of piling up their career integrity, ethics, general decency and longtime friendships and burn them to cinders on the altar of their own children's advancement over others.Īlternating between funny and appalling, this remained grounded because none was so inconceivable that people would go so far. There's plenty of poor adult behaviour (and some of their children get in on that as well) and not just some backhanded comments or social slights. ![]() What follows is a group of children who have the unfortunate circumstance of having parents who are too personally invested in the social currency of their children being seen as gifted and capturing a coveted seat in a new charter school. Violent, profane, caustic, grisly, and pitch-black-but all in a good way.I had this on my ARC pile for a few weeks and then in the news, real-life parents were caught going to actual fraudulent extremes around college admissions for their children, prompted me to pick this up. Despite the frenetic pace and meandering asides, the engrossing central mystery pays off with a twisty reveal that-in the best noir tradition-is both predictable in its tragedy and satisfying in its rough justice. Raymond Chandler-esque antihero Frank is simultaneously supremely arrogant about his skills and rubbish (and self-sabotaging) in his personal life his cynical, iconoclastic veneer barely conceals his vulnerability and romantic idealism. While the main characters are all working-class white, the background displays significant ethnic and social diversity. Frank's mordantly hilarious narration elliptically conveys all the bleakness of this Church-ruled Britain, where industrialized magic coexists with Victorian technology and epidemic presbyopia by age 30 thrusts children into adult responsibilities. But since the detective in charge hates him, superstitious mobs are after him, and his own society is ready to expel him, not to mention the feminine distractions of plucky, perceptive DC Marvell and the bishop's beautiful, enigmatic niece-well, Frank's a bit bollixed, all right? Hounam skillfully integrates classic hard-boiled-mystery conventions with the baroque flair of occult horror. When the police drag 15-year-old Frank Sampson into a murder investigation, he immediately suspects that something is off (other than the cleric's absent head). "A brilliant teenage sorcerer takes on the case of a beheaded bishop in this supernatural noir debut. An entertaining choice for speculative fiction mystery lovers. Otherwise, an additional purchase only."- School Library Journal -Journal It is also not always clear who is speaking, making it difficult to maintain a grip on the plot and dialogue. There is, however, a lot of gore due to the nature of necromancy. There are unrequited romantic overtures but no sex scenes. The Briticisms combined with terms specific to Frank's world might make the work a challenging read for some teens. He has no people skills whatsoever and none of his social challenges are magically fixed by the end of the story, making this gritty but realistic. ![]() The teen survives an abusive father, abandonment issues, as well as 'self-harming: one of the useful skills they taught me at Saint Cyprian's, ' all while trying to figure out why the Bishop of Oxford was beheaded. 'What we've got here is a world where kids do all the seeing.' This dystopian urban fantasy has an intriguing magic system heavily influenced by Catholicism, bureaucracy, and politics-none of which Frank has respect for. And most who practice it become blind by the time they reach 30. In this supernatural murder mystery, magic is known and feared, but not understood. "Frank Sampson is a 15-year-old forensic sorcerer for the Criminal Investigation Department of Doughnut City, a fictional place in England.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |