Review: Inevitable Fate by Lindsay K. Bandy

★★★★★

Review:

I would like to thank the author and Book Sirens for providing me with an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Evan’s artistic talents land him a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: his painting of a green-eyed girl leads to him spending his senior year at NYU via their Promising Young Artist program. He tells everyone her likeness is based on a girl he used to know, despite never having seen her before. When fate leads him to encounter the green-eyed girl, Mara, in the flesh on a New York sidewalk, he is captivated by her and cannot resist speaking to her. When he later sees a century-old portrait of a tattooed boy who could be his twin at an art gallery, it is clear that something extraordinary is at play. As visions of the past flash before his eyes, he learns he must save the girl he loves before she meets her end–for a third time.

Told through dual timelines, Inevitable Fate by Lindsay K. Bandy is a riveting young adult fantasy. Chapters alternate between Evan’s present-day experience and journals from Kings Park Asylum dated 1911. Incorporating real-life history such as the Dreamland Park fire at Coney Island in 1911 and William Mumlar’s spirit photographs of the 1860s brings the story to life. In addition to the supernatural themes, Inevitable Fate explores coming-of-age struggles with identity, finding one’s path, and adapting to living independently. Incorporating Greek mythology and art history with historical landmarks such as the massive, now-abandoned Kings Park Psychiatric Center and Dreamland Park, Inevitable Fate is a beautifully crafted narrative that makes history relevant and captivating to the modern young reader.

Audience: young adult
Trigger warnings: death, animal death, infant loss
Recommended for fans of: young adult fantasy, Greek mythology

Publisher's Synopsis:

Mara Cassidy is going to die...again.

For seventeen years, Evan Kiernan’s life has felt like painting by someone else’s numbers, moving and transferring schools every time his mom has a breakup. But when he’s accepted into NYU’s Promising Young Artist program for his senior year, the future suddenly feels like a blank canvas.

However, it soon becomes clear that the city has peculiar ties to his past. A thunderstorm finds him under the same umbrella as an eerily familiar green-eyed girl. A visit to an art gallery brings him face-to-face with a heavily tattooed portrait of himself. He sees things that aren’t there—at least not anymore. And the girl he’s falling in love with is somehow at the center of it all.

When history suddenly points to a devastating future, Evan must race against time to figure out who is pulling the strings and change the green-eyed girl’s fate—a race he’s already lost twice.

For readers who enjoy Strange Unearthly Things by Kelly Creagh, The Bad Ones by Melissa Albert, Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross, and The Hundred Loves of Juliet by Evelyn Skye.

Source:

Book Sirens

©CamCat Books: October 15, 2024
Edition: Digital ARC
377 pages


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