Revelations

October 15, 2013
Former child soldier-cum-broodmare-to-be Evelyn Winters is now safe on the Surface with hunky rescuer Gavin, but she can't escape her past. Evie's memory was wiped during her escape from the dystopic underwater society of Elysium (Renegade, 2012), but that doesn't stop the flashbacks. When these begin to threaten her life, Gavin decides she must go to the city to see a specialist. He reluctantly accepts the help of mayor's son Asher, former best friend, now enemy, who has the connections that will get him and Evie through the city gates, and off they go into a thicket of dangers. Asher is a good addition to the series, warm, flawed and far more interesting than Gavin. The interplay between him and Gavin will intrigue readers as well as Evie, but all will have to settle for mere hints as to the cause of their animosity. The actual overland adventure serves to fill in some worldbuilding gaps and create opportunities for Evie to show off her preternatural combat abilities, but mostly it seems there just to fill pages as, predictably, all roads seem to lead back to Elysium, where Evie hopes to find her lost memories and some answers. This she does, in a hugely contrived rush that sets up Book 3. Just another dystopian-romance middle volume, with the usual flat present-tense narration and swoony make-out scenes, though a rather higher body count than many. (Dystopian romance. 14 & up)

COPYRIGHT(2013) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

January 1, 2014

Gr 8 Up-Readers of Renegade (Tor Teen, 2012) will no doubt be anticipating this action-packed sequel. It's been weeks since surface-dweller Gavin Hunter brought Evie Winters, broken and injured, from the underwater city Elysium to a hospital on the surface. While her cuts and bruises have mostly healed, Evie's memories largely remain locked inside her head. However, she yearns to go "home" and is experiencing fugue states where she cannot remember what she's done. What's worse is that her blackouts make her violent, even deadly, toward herself and those trying to help her. Desperate to help her heal, Gavin reluctantly accepts the help of his former friend, Asher, to take Evie through the treacherous Outlands to Rushlake City, where they hope to find a doctor who can restore Evie's control over her body and mind. Most of the major characters were developed in the previous book, so those who have not read it will have some difficulty understanding their histories, motivations, and relationships. As with many dystopian tales, Revelations is at times violent and bloody, which may disturb sensitive readers. While the romance gets old quickly, teens probably won't mind the frequent kisses and Gavin's mawkish courting of Evie. For those who do, there's plenty of action and conflict to keep the plot moving. Revelations is a must for any library with Renegade on its shelves.-Leigh Collazo, Ed Willkie Middle School, Fort Worth, TX

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2013
Grades 9-12 Picking up where Renegade (2012) left off, Revelations delivers on its title's promise. Evelyn Wintersonce a golden child from Elysium, an underwater utopian society, but now just a sort of normal girl living on the surfaceis trying to collect her missing, tattered memories and cobble together some sense of her past. She has help, luckily, in the form of Gavin Hunter, who discovered her Elysium home in the previous book. But even his help is not enough when her scrambled memories begin to haunt her waking life. Memory by memory, flashback by flashback, Evelyn's beliefs about her past begin to shatter: her life hasn't always been perfect, and neither has she. Nothing and no one are what they seem, and there is sure to be more to come, thanks to an open-ended conclusion. Fans of Mary E. Pearson's The Adoration of Jenna Fox (2008) and Teri Terry's Slated (2013) will find much to like here, with less romance and more action in Evelyn's memories. Read or reread Renegade first for the complete creepy experience.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)