The Beckoning Shadow

Starred review from May 1, 2019
A girl with magical powers enters a brutal tournament, trying to win a chance to rewrite her past. As a child, Vesper loved stories about the Oddities and their magic. Then she became one. She's a Harbinger, capable of manifesting people's fears. Ever since a horrifying incident borne of her lack of control, Vesper's been a runaway loner. After landing in San Francisco, she crosses paths with fellow Oddities and learns about a high-stakes cage-fighting tournament; the winning Oddity gets $1 million and one unraveling (undoing something that has happened, altering the past). She doesn't know how to fight and is scared of her own dangerous powers but badly wants to undo her damaging past. Vesper teams up with Sam, a nonmagical Baseline human, who oversees her rigorous training at an MMA gym. The deal is that she gets the cash prize, and he gets the unraveling to correct where things went wrong in his last relationship two years prior. Even while planning to betray him and claim the unraveling, Vesper begins to fall for Sam. All storylines--the tournament, what happened with Sam's ex, why the rules of magic are changing--tie together through flawless pacing and well-balanced action, leading to revelations that foster character growth. While Vesper and Sam are assumed white, secondary characters have varying skin tones. An extraordinary debut packed with richly drawn characters in a sure-to-entertain storyline. (Fantasy. 14-adult)

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Starred review from May 27, 2019
Former cheerleader Vesper, 17, remembers her previous life: before she learned that she was an Oddity, before the fire that she inadvertently set took her home and nearly destroyed her family in Los Altos, and before she learned exactly what her powers as a Harbinger—discerning and conjuring a person’s worst fear—could do. On the run, she ends up in San Francisco overnight and falls in with a group of teens, many also Oddities with powers that manifested the same time as her own. This acquaintanceship leads her to an underground gladiatorial tournament and a chance at undoing the past and returning to her former life. The more time she spends with her new friends, including Sam, the Baseline (nonmagical) boy she partners with for the tournament but plans to betray, the more she realizes that something darker is afoot. There’s a shady past to the group who used to police Oddities but have since disappeared—and their secrets threaten to overwhelm the present. Interweaving excellent worldbuilding with the uncertainties of discipline, friendship, and taking ownership of one’s decisions, Blair’s debut will entrance and delight in equal measure. Ages 14–up. Agent: Brianne Johnson, Writers House.

June 1, 2019

Gr 9 Up-Vesper is on the run, sleeping beneath overpasses and in abandoned churches. Two years ago, she realized the thing her parents should have feared was her...right before she destroyed them and ran. She steps off the bus in another new place and walks right into the world she's been running from: a blue Queen of Poisons flower dried and tacked to a door. This is a death sentence from the Wardens who make sure that Oddities are dealt with and the world is safe for real people. A cup of coffee seems like a good idea but ends up as another chance for her magic to take control and ruin her world again-forever. Innocent people are hurt, and the police draw their guns. The youth who save Vesper from her folly show her a whole new world of danger and hope and an opportunity to change and save everything. She has to try, even if it means her death. Poetry fans will appreciate quotations from William Ernest Henley's poem "Invictus" throughout the novel, and the message it sends. This story of magic, hope, death, friendship, and family will engage teen readers. VERDICT Offering a taste of the mystical, a great voice and dialogue, and well-written questions that address teen angst, the book reads like Brandon Sanderson's Steelheart meets Barry Lyga's The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl. A solid choice for YA libraries.-Cathleen Ash, Manor High School Library, TX

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