Genre: Suspense
Told from multiple viewpoints, six teenagers struggle to survive when masked men open fire in a shopping mall at Christmas time. Grace, watched in horror as her mother became the first victim. Miranda had been looking for ways to earn extra cash to support her new habit. Javier had been working as a janitor in the cafeteria. Amina had been working retail in a local clothing shop. Cole was near the food court when the shooting happened and tried to get as many people as possible into a local store before the metal grate closed. Finally, Parker had been reluctantly babysitting his little sister while messing around with his friends and lost track of her in the chaos. He finds himself in the middle of the action while trying to find her. All of these teenagers come from different backgrounds and have different issues to deal with, but ultimately they all have the same goal of survival. They come up with a plan for how to help the hostages, but not everyone will make it out alive.
April Henry has once again created a fast paced suspenseful novel in which the characters are engaging. Reluctant readers will enjoy this title as it is full of action and very little downtime. The ending does contain a few surprises, but most are set up throughout the story and should not be a huge surprise. A very entertaining read.
Theodosia was forced to witness her mother, the queen’s, brutal murder at the hands of the man forcibly taking over their kingdom. For some reason, the Kaiser who now rules the kingdom has kept her alive all these years, but he has forced her to take on a new name (Thora) and endure countless beatings and ridicule in order to learn her place. Whenever her people would rebel in any way he would order Theodosia to be publicly beaten so that she could pay for the sins of her people and he would force her to wear an ash crown in order to mock the fact that her mother was the fire queen. By the time she is 16 he feels confident he has broken her spirit, but he still has three guards watch her 24/7 to make sure she doesn’t get any treasonous thoughts. Her best friend, Cress, is the daughter of the Kaiser’s right hand man who actually murdered her mother. She is very friendly, but Theodosia wonders if she can truly trust anyone in this terrible place that used to be her home. Then, she is made aware of allies in her castle who are willing to give up everything for her and she realizes that she does have the desire to fight for her kingdom and take it back for what remains of her people. The only question is can her and her meager supporters really defeat a man who has made it his mission in life to destroy kingdoms mercilessly? Can they outsmart a man who always seems to be two steps ahead?
Anna is a trained psychiatrist who hasn’t left her apartment in over a year due to acute agoraphobia. She spends her days watching old Hitchcock movies, drinking wine, doing things online, and watching her neighbors. Her ex-husband and young daughter do not see her much, but they talk often. When she notices a new family move in with a teenage son she begins watching them as she does all the other neighbors, but one day she witnesses something terrible and reports it to the police. Unfortunately, when they investigate Anna’s life begins to implode as she is forced to face everything in her life that is real and everything she has imagined since she has been trapped inside her house. No one believes she saw anything sinister since she is a heavy drinker and has anxiety issues, but she is positive she witnessed something. Did she really see something or is her mind playing tricks on her again?
