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Summary
Summary
Zara collects phobias the way other high school girls collect facebook friends. Little wonder, since she's had a pretty rough life. Her father left when she was a baby, and her stepfather just died. Her mother's pretty much checked out - in fact, Mom's sent her to live with her grandmother in cold and sleepy Maine to "keep Zara safe." Whatever that means. Zara doesn't think she's in danger; she thinks her mother just can't deal.
Zara's wrong. The man she sees everywhere - the tall creepy guy who points at her from the side of the road - yeh, he's not a figment of her imagination. He's a pixie. And not the cute, sweet kind with little wings. Maine's got a whole assortment of unbelievable creatures, like pixies and were-people. And they seem to need something - something from Zara...
Author Notes
Carrie Jones is an award-winning author who recently graduated from Vermont College's MFA program. She is the author of the YA novels Girl, Hero ; Love (and Other Uses for Duct Tape) ; and Tips on Having a Gay (Ex)-Boyfriend , which was nominated for a YALSA Quick Pick and won the Maine Literary Award as well as the Independent Book Publisher Award (the IPPY) . Her upcoming picture book Moe Berg, the Spy who Played Baseball (from David Godine) is being illustrated by Barry Moser. Carrie lives in Ellsworth, Maine.
www.carriejonesbooks.com
www.needpixies.com
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up-Move over Edward Cullen (Twilight)-there's a new boy in town. Carrie Jones's terrific fantasy/romance/thriller (Bloomsbury, 2008) is sure to be a crowd pleaser. Zara White flies to Maine to live with her grandmother after her stepfather dies in her arms. At the airport, she notices a mysterious man pointing at the plane and-it seems-at her. Could this be the same man she has seen around her South Carolina hometown? When he shows up in tiny Bedford, things turn really creepy. Zara begins to realize that the townspeople are hiding monumental secrets: young boys are disappearing and nobody-not the head cheerleader, the star athlete, or even Zara's grandmother-are who they claim to be. Zara joins forces with new friends Issie, Devyn, and the mysterious Nick, and romance blooms as they race to outwit Zara's stalker. Narrator Julia Whelan deftly captures Zara's youthful Southern twang and the harder-edged Northeastern accents of the other characters. This is a taut, satisfying thriller. Don't be put off by the provocative cover-the writing is gentle enough for younger teens. A sequel, Captivate, is planned for early 2010.-Tricia Melgaard, Centennial Middle School, Broken Arrow, OK (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
It's not hard to see Twilight in the DNA of this novel: Zara's stepfather has died, her mother isn't capable of caring for her, and she has been sent to live with her grandmother in a small remote town in Maine. When her car spins out of control (Calling Stephenie Meyer!), she's rescued by sexy Nick (who turns out to be a werewolf), and something might be cooking with her overachieving classmate Ian. Too bad she's being followed by someone dark and dangerous--a pixie king. This pixie is no harmless sprite: "when not mated with a queen for an unspecified amount of time," Zara learns, "the pixie kings will demand... young human men, who they kill after using them for their blood-hungry pleasures." Will Zara sacrifice herself to this vampire stand-in or let him destroy everything she loves? Jones (Love {{and Other Uses for Duct Tape]) easily wins readers to Zara's side, portraying her as a funny, globally conscious teen who also "collect[s}} fears like other people collect stamps" (obscure phobias serve as chapter titles). Genre fans will enjoy the sizzle between Nick and Zara as well as the paranormal cast. Ages 12-up. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Zara, who's a runner, an Amnesty International advocate, and a realist, doesn't believe her new friends' theory that pixies are loose in the Maine wilderness, preying on teens alone at night. However, mounting evidence about her schoolmates--and her own family members, including the stepfather she mourns--slowly changes her mind. This supernatural romance benefits from complex characters and unique imagery. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Leaving behind her warmly quirky realism to jump on the supernatural-romance bandwagon, Jones leans too hard on overly recognizable motifs. Zara's mother sends her to a remote, frigid Maine town to regain her spirit after her father dies. Boys immediately adore her, but only one electrifies her in return: Nick, an inhumanly fast runner. Polite Ian's also inhumanly fast, but new friends Issie and Devyn seem to favor Nick, despite his faintly dangerous vibe. A strange man stalks Zara, and she admits that he's been lurking in her life since the day of her father's fatal heart attack. He's a pixie, needing a queen to enhance his power lest he kidnap boys to drink their blood. Several scenes seem illogically manipulated for plot tension; choppy continuity undermines readers' ability to distinguish awkward prose from Zara's valid grief. A sense of the derivative outweighs welcome flashes of wit and humor. This one's for readers already hooked on smug supernatural males and incurious heroines less informed than anyone around them. Twi-lite. (Fantasy. YA) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
