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Rees, Celia
7 Reviews
(2)
YA
Jamie has a contentious relationship with older brother Rob, who returned from Afghanistan with PTSD; Jamie's love interest, Caro, is a misunderstood girl with a bad reputation--and a past with Rob. Rees carefully leads Jamie (and readers) through a complicated series of revelations about the love triangle. The book's climax--explosive, violent, and unexpected--will leave readers unsettled.
Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
November, 2012
(3)
YA
Violetta and Feste seek the help of Will Shakespeare in retrieving the "holy relic" of Illyria, stolen by wicked Malvolio before he sacked and destroyed their land. By book's end, Will has spun the tragic stories related by Violetta and Feste into a new comedy: Twelfth Night. The abundance of period details and Shakespearean references will satisfy history and literature buffs.
Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz
(4)
YA
In England in the time of the French Revolution, well-born adventurer Sovay takes to highway robbery--first to avenge a romantic slight, then to stop a plot to frame her father for treason. The narrative, long on action, is regrettably shorter on character development. Nevertheless, this tale of political intrigue and familial loyalty will keep readers turning pages.
Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam
(4)
YA
Richard, a middle-class teen vacationing in Wales, is drawn to Clio, the lovely daughter of bohemian artists. Free love, casual nudity, and decadent drug use thinly mask the taut foreshadowing of secrets that aren't nearly as dire as they initially seem. Dark psychological overtones and Rees's lyrical prose almost make up for the anticlimax.
Reviewer: Dorrie Karlin
(3)
YA
In 1722, sixteen-year-old Nancy is sent to her father's Jamaican plantation, where she is to be married off to a wealthy and despicable man. Instead, she and Minerva, the slave she has befriended, run away and join a band of pirates. Adventure and romance fans will enjoy this engaging story of two strong young women who take their lives into their own hands.
Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander
(2)
YA
Mary, a young witch, fears for her own life after her grandmother and mentor is hanged. Luckily, she is rescued and whisked away to America disguised as a Puritan--all under the protective, often invisible gaze of other witches. In the expertly written, potent novel, persecution catches up with Mary in the New World, and her narrative ends dramatically mid-sentence--leaving readers eagerly awaiting a sequel.
Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
September, 2001
(4)
4-6
In a story with all the trappings of an "X-Files" episode (UFOs, alien abductions, crop circles), a British boy investigates his uncle's supposed death at age thirteen by reading his mother's notes for a book and playing a mysterious computer game. Readers who "want to believe" may be disappointed by the late veer into a problem novel about Asperger's Syndrome, an autistic spectrum disorder.
Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam
7 reviews
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