Holly Black sticks to her strengths in this dark, edgy collection of short stories. Like her other teen titles, this collection explores the bleeding underbelly of urban adolescence, where faeries meet GBLTQ lust, vampires sweat out their infection on youtube, and werewolves consort with royalty at a bloodstained court.
Librarians will be particularly thrilled by the doubly-geeky tale of classification gone wrong, and fans of Black's elfpunk Tithe and Valiant will find some familiar characters in the bleak The Land of Hearts Desire.
The standout tale is clearly the last in the set. In The Poison Eaters, three sisters fulfill their destiny by bringing death to their hapless suitors. Merely weapons, the end of the story twists and turns in revealing the double and triple crossings of fate that brought kings and knights to a poisonous end at their hands.
For teens with a taste for supernatural horror, Holly Black is reliably disturbing. Those who love her should check out titles by Laini Taylor or Justine Larbalestier.
Short Stories (supernatural horror)
Grades 10-12
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