Monday, December 10, 2012

Review: Lucretia and the Kroons by Victor LaValle

Rating: 4 Stars
Pages: 104 Pages
Genre: Young Adult (Fantasy)
Series/Standalone: Standalone
Version: eBook
Publication Date: July 2012
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Source: NetGalley (Advanced Reader Copy)

Synopsis (GoodReads):

Lucretia’s best friend and upstairs neighbor Sunny—a sweet pitbull of a kid, even as she struggles with a mysterious illness—has gone missing. The only way to get her back is for Lucretia to climb the rickety fire escape of their Queens tenement and crawl through the window of apartment 6D, portal to a vast shadowland of missing kids ruled by a nightmarish family of mutants whose designs on the children are unknown. Her search for Sunny takes Lucretia through a dark fantasyland where she finds lush forests growing from concrete, pigeon-winged rodents, and haunted playgrounds. Her quest ultimately forces her to confront the most frightening specter of all: losing, forever, the thing you love the most.

Lucretia and the Kroons is a dazzlingly imaginative adventure story and a moving exploration of the power of friendship and the terror of loss. This all-new novella serves as the perfect companion piece to The Devil in Silver, a thrillingly suspenseful work of literary horror that continues the story of Lucretia.
Brief Review:

The first thing that came to mind after reading Lucretia and the Kroons was that it reminded me of Alice in Wonderland, but darker and in the hood.  I read Alice in Wonderland as an adult and while I liked it, I did not like it enough to pick up the sequel.  But I will be reading the follow up piece The Devil in Silver.

(this review is shorter because it has been a while since I read Lucretia and the Kroons and I can't remember everything I wanted to say about it.)

Overall Recommendation:

I would recommend giving it a try.  Since it is a novella depending on reading speed it can be read in one or two sittings.

1 comment:

  1. You've got me thinking of Alice, too, and also Coraline (what I've heard about it - I haven't read it). Sounds pretty scary, though the lesson/message sounds good.

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