Gateway Reviews

INSTANT KARMA Ambitious over-achiever Prudence Barnett is quick to judge those around her. Lazy, incompetent, and downright horrible: the residents of her beachside town deserve all the bad karma coming to them. After a night out with friends, Prudence wakes up with the ability to cast instant karma on those around her, and she is quick to wield her newfound power. Vandals, gossips, and litterers all come under her swift karmic power. But whenever Prudence tries to punish the person who deserves bad karma the most, her slacker lab partner Quint, her power backfires. He may be charming. He may be funny, but as a lab partner, he can't be trusted. When their final project comes back with a less-than-stellar grade, Prudence resigns herself to a summer working alongside Quint to redo the project, but the more she pushes him to work, the more she begins to discover the truth and question her own black-and-white view of the world. ...

THE KINGDOM OF BACK Nannerl Mozart has only one wish: to be remembered in the tomes of history forevermore. But for a young girl in the 1760s, this wish is just beyond her grasp. Though she is a talented musician, she is not allowed to compose her own pieces. Her own musical ability proves less impressive than that of her baby brother, Wolfgang, and the closer she gets to marriageable age, the less time Nannerl has to perform before the public. All in all, Nannerl is desperate for recognition that she will never get. Though her father and her audience has limited time for her music, someone does hear her plea. The gateway to the mysterious Kingdom of Back opens, and a handsome stranger appears in Nannerl's dreams. This stranger offers to help bring her the recognition she seeks--if only she will help him to get what he desires in return. PROS Whimsical Descriptions The faerie world Lu creat...

CEMETERY BOYS At almost sixteen-years-old, Yadriel should be a full-fledged brujo, sworn to Santa Meurte and protector of spirits trapped between this life and the next. But because Yadriel is trans, he never completed his quinces ceremony and assumed his birthright. He was never even given the chance by a community that doesn't understand. Alongside his best friend and cousin Maritza, Yadriel decides to take matters into his own hands. To prove to his family that he is the boy he has always believed, Yadriel sets out to summon the spirit of his recently deceased cousin and help him pass to the afterlife. But when Yadriel's classmate Julian shows up instead, Yadriel finds himself saddled with a spirit who won't pass peacefully to the other side. Instead, Julian demands to tie up the loose ends left in the wake of his unexpected death, and Yadriel has no choice but to comply. PROS Unapo...

SKYHUNTER The Federation is on the brink of conquering the world. Only Mara remains free. Each day, Mara's elite Strikers fight off the mutated experiments the Federation sends to test the borders. Each day, the borders shrink. Every day, a bit of freedom is lost to the Federation. Talin, a refugee from the Federation and one of Mara's Strikers, knows that they are losing the battle, that Mara soon will fall. But when the Strikers capture a deserter from the Federation named Red, Talin knows there is more to Red than meets the eye, and she will do whatever it takes to discover his secrets and save her new home from the war. PROS Post-Post-Apocalyptic Worldbuilding In a world that, at the moment, feels just a little bit too close to the edge of "apocalyptic nightmare," it is fun to escape into an imagined reality that is solidly post apocalypse. That is to say, Marie Lu creates ...