Books by Neal Shusterman and Complete Book Reviews

Tea Benduhn, Author, Neal Shusterman, Author . S&S $15.95 (160p) ISBN 978-0-689-84994-7
In this contemporary romance, first-time author Benduhn presents the light side of homosexual love with mixed success. Aurin, Fred and Kenney, a close-knit trio comprised of two girls and a guy who've been friends since sixth grade, spend their...
READ FULL REVIEW
Edited by Shaun David Hutchinson. Simon & Schuster, $17.99 (352p) ISBN 978-1-4814-3745-5
Seventeen young adult writers including Steve Brezenoff, Beth Revis, Cynthia Leitich Smith, and Courtney Summers contribute to this powerful project—a single story told through multiple perspectives—to provide insight into what drove Kirby Matheson,
READ FULL REVIEW
Neal Shusterman, Author Dutton Children's Books $16.99 (200p) ISBN 978-0-525-46835-6
Falsely accused of playing mean-spirited pranks on new kid Alec Smaartz, Jared seeks to rebuild his reputation by enlisting the help of former Shadow Club members in Neal Shusterman's The Shadow Club Rising. His request rebuffed, the ex-ringleader
READ FULL REVIEW
Neal Shusterman. Simon & Schuster, $18.99 (512p) ISBN 978-1-4424-7245-7
Shusterman cranks up the stakes in this blistering sequel to 2016’s Scythe, set on a “post-mortal” future Earth in which easily revived humans are only “deadish” when killed, not permanently dead, except for the few “gleaned” by scythes, who kill to
READ FULL REVIEW
Neal Shusterman. Simon & Schuster, $18.99 (448p) ISBN 978-1-4424-7242-6
In the future Earth of this grim novel from National Book Award–winner Shusterman (Challenger Deep), the digital cloud has transformed into the self-aware Thunderhead, whose benevolent totalitarian rule has turned the planet into a utopia. There’s...
READ FULL REVIEW
Neal Shusterman. HarperTeen, $17.99 (320p) ISBN 978-0-06-113411-1
With lyricism and potent insight, Shusterman (Unwind) traces the schizophrenic descent and return of Caden Bosch, an intelligent 15-year-old and a gifted artist. His internal narratives are sometimes dreams, sometimes hallucinations, and sometimes...
READ FULL REVIEW
Neal Shusterman, Author Tor Books $18.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-312-85506-2
As in The Eyes of Kid Midas, Shusterman takes an outlandish comic-book concept and, through the sheer audacity and breadth of his imagination, makes it stunningly believable. His cast here might be a diseased and delinquent version of D.C. Comics'...
READ FULL REVIEW
Neal Shusterman, Author Little Brown and Company $15.95 (185p) ISBN 978-0-316-77542-7
It's no coincidence that this novel's title and protagonist hark back to Greek mythology; this modern fantasy has the resonance and power of an ancient myth. Shusterman ( The Shadow Club ; What Daddy Did ) starts with a question--What if a typical...
READ FULL REVIEW
Neal Shusterman, Author Little Brown and Company $15.95 (230p) ISBN 978-0-316-78906-6
Although Shusterman's novel is based on a true story, readers may well be disappointed by his listless treatment. The minimal character development and lackadaisical pace deaden the impact of these potentially intriguing incidents. Preston Scott...
READ FULL REVIEW
Neal Shusterman, Author Little Brown and Company $12.95 (183p) ISBN 978-0-316-77540-3
This engrossing book portrays how easily even ``good'' kids can lose control of themselves and do cruel and horrible things. Seven junior-high-school students (all ``second-bests'') led by narrator Jared and best friend Cheryl form the Shadow Club...
READ FULL REVIEW
In PW's words, "History and urban folklore are wittily combined in this well-wrought fantasy, centering on an alternative society that thrives undisturbed in the subterranean recesses of New York City." Ages 12-up. (Feb.)
READ FULL REVIEW
Neal Shusterman, Author Tor Books $21.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-312-85507-9
In this low-key sequel to Shusterman's well-received fantasy, Scorpion Shards (1995), the five living Star Shards, whose souls are ""the shattered fragments of the star Mentarus-H, which went supernova nova, at the moment each...was conceived,""...
READ FULL REVIEW
Neal Shusterman, Author . Tor $24.95 (416p) ISBN 978-0-312-85508-6
The third and final book in Shusterman's Star Shards Chronicles (Scorpion Shards; Thief of Souls) is not for the squeamish, as it mixes plenty of blood and gore with big philosophical questions. The earlier novels followed the six superhuman "
READ FULL REVIEW
Neal Shusterman, Author . S&S $16.95 (208p) ISBN 978-0-689-80374-1
In a book that moves like one of the roller coasters it describes, a teenage boy must face a series of tests that represent his deepest fears in order to save his brother. Narrator Blake, a thoughtful 16-year-old student about to leave home for an...
READ FULL REVIEW
Neal Shusterman, Author . S&S $16.95 (313p) ISBN 978-0-689-87237-2
Shusterman's (Full Tilt ) enigmatic novel imagines a purgatory where only children go, with its own vocabulary and body of literature plus a monster named the McGill. After a car accident, teens Allie and Nick awaken 272 days later in Everlost. &
READ FULL REVIEW
Neal Shusterman, Author . Simon & Schuster $16.99 (352p) ISBN 978-1-4169-1204-0
Shusterman (Everlost ) explores one of the most divisive of topics—abortion—in this gripping, brilliantly imagined futuristic thriller. After a civil war waged over abortion has almost destroyed America, completely new laws are in effect.
READ FULL REVIEW
Neal Shusterman, HarperTeen, $16.99 (336p) ISBN 978-0-06-113408-1
In this thought-provoking, low-key drama, Shusterman (Unwind) examines the bonds between family, friends, and community, and how the individual can affect the whole. Sixteen-year-old twins Tennyson and Brontë Sternberger aren't the closest of...
READ FULL REVIEW
Neal Shusterman, Author Little, Brown Books for Young Readers $27.99 (184p) ISBN 978-0-316-78907-3
Jason Miller's life is like a Norman Rockwell painting--his parents enjoy woodworking and barbecues; his friends all play Little League; and his town, he says, is so uneventful that ""whenever I heard people talk about someone going nowhere fast, I...
READ FULL REVIEW
Neal Shusterman, Author Little Brown and Company $28 (192p) ISBN 978-0-316-78904-2
Following a solid debut with the complex and absorbing The Shadow Club , Shusterman's second book is awash with simplistic notions about U.S.-Soviet relations and issues of family trust. Derek Ferretti's father dies in an car accident and he is sent
READ FULL REVIEW
Neal Shusterman, Author Harper Teen $5.99 (240p) ISBN 978-0-06-447094-0
The author of Speeding Bullet and The Eyes of Kid Midas presents a fictionalized account of a gripping true story--a teenaged boy's prototypical happy family life comes crashing down when his father shoots his mother. Ages 12-up. (Mar.)
READ FULL REVIEW
Neal Shusterman, Author Tor Books $4.99 (192p) ISBN 978-0-8125-3460-3
A much-snubbed junior high school student finds a pair of sunglasses that make his every wish come true--how far will his thirst for revenge take him? Ages 8-14. (Mar.)
READ FULL REVIEW
Neal Shusterman, Author Tor Books $3.99 (128p) ISBN 978-0-8125-5197-6
Paintings one can step into, a vengeful Christmas tree that pins Santa to the floor, a hot tub that is home to a hungry Loch Ness monster--these are some of the unlikely objects featured in Shusterman's candy-box-like collection of 10 mildly...
READ FULL REVIEW
Neal Shusterman, Author Tor Books $5.99 (240p) ISBN 978-0-8125-2465-9
Six teens battle an evil force that controls and intends to destroy them. ""Shusterman takes an outlandish comic-book concept and, through the sheer audacity and breadth of his imagination, makes it stunningly believable,"" said PW in a starred...
READ FULL REVIEW
Neal Shusterman and Eric Elfman. Disney-Hyperion, $16.99 (256p) ISBN 978-1-4231-4803-6
This entertaining and often surprising first book in Shusterman and Elfman’s Accelerati trilogy is well-timed to take advantage of the resurgent interest in Nicola Tesla (and an omnipresent interest in secret societies and conspiracies). Fourteen-yea
READ FULL REVIEW
Neal and Jarrod Shusterman. Simon & Schuster, $18.99 (400p) ISBN 978-1-4814-8196-0
In Neal Shusterman (Thunderhead) and son Jarrod’s near-future or alternate-present America, a prolonged drought (“the Tap-Out”) results in the sudden curtailment of Southern California’s water supply. When their parents vanish while seeking...
READ FULL REVIEW
Neal Shusterman, Author, Greg Harlin, Illustrator Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing $17.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-689-80375-8
History and urban folklore are wittily combined in Shusterman's (The Eyes of Kid Midas) well-wrought fantasy, centering on an alternative society that thrives undisturbed in the subterranean recesses of New York City. Despite stringently enforced...
READ FULL REVIEW
Neal Shusterman, Author, Neal Schusterman, Author Little Brown and Company $14.95 (200p) ISBN 978-0-316-78905-9
``You have to believe in yourself,'' Nick's teachers at N.Y.C.'s Harrison High are always saying. But the 10th-grader tells himself that it's ``better to fail by design than risk failing for real.'' However, fate seems to have other plans for Nick...
READ FULL REVIEW
Neal Shusterman. Simon & Schuster, $19.99 (640p) ISBN 978-1-4814-9706-0
When Citra and Rowan are discovered preserved in the wreckage of Endura, three years after the events of Thunderhead, they awaken to find that megalomaniacal Scythe Goddard is now Overblade of all North Merica and is consolidating power worldwide....
READ FULL REVIEW
Neal Shusterman. Quill Tree, $17.99 (400p) ISBN 978-0-06-199867-6
A straight, white, cisgender teen is confronted with his own privilege via iterative realities in Printz Honoree Shusterman’s (Scythe) ambitious speculative novel. In the first game of his senior year, defensive tackle Ash Bowman feels a strange...
READ FULL REVIEW
Neal Shusterman et al. Simon & Schuster, $19.99 (432p) ISBN 978-1-5344-9997-3
Spanning from the end of the mortal era alluded to in Scythe to the period following The Toll, Shusterman’s amalgam of in-world extrapolations—many written in collaboration with creators including Joelle Shusterman and David Yoon—explore previously
READ FULL REVIEW
Neal Shusterman and Eric Elfman. Little, Brown, $17.99 (400p) ISBN 978-0-7595-5524-2
The creators of the Accelerati Trilogy reteam for this dynamic, Oregon-set series kickoff, whose wide-ranging adventure arc encompasses aliens, animalian hijinks, designer coffins, and Stonehenge. Fourteen-year-old Noah Prime has always had an...
READ FULL REVIEW
Neal and Jarrod Shusterman. Simon & Schuster, $18.99 (384p) ISBN 978-1-5344-5125-4
Through a high-concept thriller that looks into the opioid crisis, the previous father-son collaborators (Dry) follow two siblings at the center of a deadly wager between two drugs characterized as gods. Confident and alluring Adderall (Addi) and...
READ FULL REVIEW
Neal Shusterman, illus. by Andrés Vera Martínez. Graphix, $24.99 (256p) ISBN 978-0-545-31347-6; $14.99 paper ISBN 978-0-5453-1348-3
Shusterman (I Am the Walrus) and Martinez (Little White Duck) deploy a mixture of fantasy and history to reimagine elements of the Holocaust in this uneven graphic novel. Throughout five interconnected stories, some of which are inspired by actual...
READ FULL REVIEW
Michelle Knowlden, Neal Shusterman, and Debra Young. Quill Tree, $19.99 (432p) ISBN 978-0-06-287576-1
Two incarcerated teens fall in love at a gender-segregated juvenile detention center in this uniquely rendered romance by Knowlden, Shusterman, and Young. High school junior Adriana Zaharn writes rhythmic poems in her journal while serving time at...
READ FULL REVIEW
ARTICLES
  • Four Questions for Neal Shusterman
  • Noteworthy YA Trilogies Get Finales This Season
  • Trilogies: Neal Shusterman
  • BookExpo 2018: Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman: Fiction Stoked by Foreboding Fact
  • Fiction Frighteningly Reflects Fact in 'Dry'
  • Four Questions for Neal Shusterman
  • X
    Stay ahead with
    Tip Sheet!
    Free newsletter: the hottest new books, features and more
    X
    X
    Email Address

    Password

    Log In Forgot Password

    Premium online access is only available to PW subscribers. If you have an active subscription and need to set up or change your password, please click here.

    New to PW? To set up immediate access, click here.

    NOTE: If you had a previous PW subscription, click here to reactivate your immediate access. PW site license members have access to PW’s subscriber-only website content. If working at an office location and you are not "logged in", simply close and relaunch your preferred browser. For off-site access, click here. To find out more about PW’s site license subscription options, please email Mike Popalardo at: mike@nextstepsmarketing.com.

    To subscribe: click here.