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Bick, Ilsa J.
8 Reviews
(4)
YA
Dark Passages series.
The new Now is an alternate Victorian London, where Emma (White Space) awakens in the body of schizophrenic grownup Elizabeth. Institutionalized in a psychiatric asylum, Emma must evade a nefarious doctor to relocate her friends and realign their realities. A complicated plot and sizable cast of characters with alternating aliases and versions of themselves limits this novel's appeal to series fans.
Reviewer: Grace Enriquez
(4)
YA
Dark Passages series.
"Eric felt blood welling from the fresh wound on his cheek. I'm real; I'm bleeding; you can't bleed if you're not real..." Eight strangers are lost in a fog, hunted by the stuff of nightmares. One little girl knows where they are, trapped in the space between their stories, but she may not be what she seems. A gory, unwieldy experiment in puppet-master horror and multiverse theory.
Reviewer: Rebecca Hachmyer
(3)
YA
A soldier serving in Afghanistan recounts the series of complicated events that led to the brutal killing of his estranged friend in their small Wisconsin town. Unable to explain what he saw that night or why he didn't help, Ben covered his tracks before investigating on his own. Ben's story is a tense and tragic exploration of intolerance and the elusiveness of truth.
Reviewer: Randy Ribay
(2)
YA
Ashes Trilogy series.
In this trilogy-ender, Alex is still battling nature, herself, the humans who have turned into monsters, and the other "normal" humans whose ethics seem rather monstrous as well. Tom and Ellie are still separated from Alex, each struggling to survive. There are few wasted scenes and ample chances to say goodbye to these beleaguered characters.
Reviewer: April Spisak
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
September, 2013
(4)
YA
Sixteen-year-old Jenna narrates her history (which includes sexual abuse, scarring from a fire, self-harm, and finally a romantic relationship with her married chemistry teacher) to a detective attempting to get to the bottom of her troubled case. Like a train wreck, Jenna's narrative is impossible to look away from, but the never-ending spiral of violence and abuse can at times seem gratuitous.
Reviewer: Norah Piehl
(2)
YA
Ashes Trilogy series.
Alex (Ashes), still on the edge of sanity and survival, fights the zombies created by a cataclysmic electromagnetic pulse; avoids the creepy powers that sent her into the wilderness; and searches for her missing love. Dystopian and apocalypse buffs, as well as fans of the earlier novel, will enjoy this well-developed look at how the end of the world could play out.
Reviewer: April Spisak
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
September, 2012
(3)
YA
An electromagnetic pulse kills most of the country's population instantly; many of those left become zombielike, "brain-zapped" cannibals. Survivor Alex teams up with eight-year-old Ellie and soldier Tom to search for other people. The trio's deepening bond adds to the already high tension. This horror/survival story (with extremely graphic violence) presents an intriguing take on zombie fiction.
Reviewer: Katie Bircher
(3)
YA
Christian is able to draw images from the minds of others--who then tend to die. His attempt to understand this power leads to an exhumation of the town's dark past, involving German prisoners of war, the community's last surviving Jew, and a murder. This cold-case-meets-magical-realism narrative is a suspenseful tale and a critical examination of how history is written.
Reviewer: Randy Ribay
8 reviews
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