The Revenant Games

January 1, 2024
Bly's world is filled with vampires, witches, and humans like herself. Vampires and witches live under an uneasy peace, but for two weeks each year, they play the Revenant Games. During this time, humans can choose a side, try to capture a member of the opposing faction, and claim a reward: The witches will raise someone from the dead, while the vampires will grant you immortality. Bly enters in hopes of winning her sister Elise's resurrection. During preparations for the Games, however, Emerson, her best friend and crush, receives a death curse from a witch that can only be cured if he attains immortality. The two team up, playing for both sides in an attempt to save both Emerson and Elise. But when they capture a vampire called Kerrigan, and Bly's feelings for him get complicated, she faces difficult decisions. This book's real draw is the abundant drama between the players. The Games themselves mostly feel like walks through the woods punctuated by occasional battles, and the explanation for the witches' and vampires' incentives to risk their lives is unconvincing, making the overall setup feel contrived. Fans of traditional vampires will enjoy the book's portrayal of these velvet-wearing creatures, however. The abrupt ending sets things up to be continued in a possible sequel. Bly is cued white; Emerson has dark brown skin, and supporting characters bring diversity in skin color and sexual orientation. Come for the forbidden romance and interpersonal machinations rather than the titular Games. (Fantasy. 14-18)

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

January 8, 2024
Fuston (Vampires, Hearts & Other Dead Things) adds a historical fantasy spin to a Hunger Games–style tournament in this urgent action-adventure. Teen Bly and her family, including her younger sister Elise, struggle to survive while living in the Gap, a locale between Vagaris and Havenwhile, both powerful cities ruled by vampires and witches, respectively, each of whom needed Gap residents “hungry enough to sell their blood.” Bly wants to escape the Gap, certain she could cultivate a life free from hunger rather than skipping meals to pay for necessities. More than that, she wants her best friend Emerson to share in her adventures. But when her plans for escape bring tragedy, she resorts to selling blood and planning for the Revenant Games, the one time of year when humans compete for the rare opportunity to toy with mortality as Vagaris and Havenwhile have done for centuries. With no magic of her own, however, Bly must do everything she can to win—even if it means aligning with the enemy. Via inviting and introspective prose, Fuston fashions a ruthless world filled with desperation and gilded cages, where revolution simmers beneath the surface and chaos awaits around every corner. Bly and her family read as white and Emerson has dark brown skin. Ages 14–up. Agent: Rebecca Podos, Rees Agency.

March 1, 2024
Grades 9-12 Seventeen-year-old Bly, like most humans, lives in the Gap, the neutral zone between warring vampire and witch kingdoms, and survives by selling blood to both witches (for their spells) and vampires (to fuel their lives). Bly dreams of better: leaving with her crush, Emerson, and finding the rumored safe haven from their overlords. Instead, when Bly's risk-taking causes her beloved sister Elise's death, she enters the Revenant Games, a deadly competition that humans can play for either side. If Bly can capture the highest-ranking vampire and deliver it to the witches, they will raise Elise from the dead. When Emerson is cursed to die in a year unless he, playing for the vampires, can capture a powerful witch and win immortality, they scheme to secretly play both sides. First in a series, this overwrought but entertaining fantasy dystopia features nuanced characters trying to navigate a ruthless, blood-soaked world without losing what they hold dear. Twisty reveals, sudden betrayals, and a hint of forbidden passion lead to a cliff-hanger ending that will hook readers for the sequel.

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