Review: WILDCAT FIREFLIES by Amber Kizer (A Meridian Novel)

Title: WILDCAT FIREFLIES

Author: Amber Kizer

pub: July 12, 2011

genre: Teen Fiction/Paranormal

Amazon/Website

(Teen Book Scene Blog Tours)

Meridian Sozu is a Fenestra—the half-human, half-angel link between the living and the dead. She has the dark responsibility of helping souls transition safely into the afterlife. If people die without the help of a Fenestra, their souls are left vulnerable to be stolen by the Aternocti, a dark band of forces who disrupt the balance of good and evil in the world and cause chaos.
Having recently lost her beloved Auntie—the woman who showed her what it meant to be a Fenestra—Meridian has hit the road with Tens, her love and sworn protector, in hopes of finding another Fenestra. Their search leads them to Indiana, where Juliet, a responsible and loving teenager, works tirelessly in the nursing home where she and several other foster kids are housed. Surrounded by death, Juliet struggles to make a loving home for the younger kids, and to protect them from the violent whims of their foster mother. But she is struggling against forces she can't understand . . . and even as she feels a pull toward the dying, their sickness seems to infect her, weighing her down. . . .
Will Meri and Tens find Juliet in time to save her from a life of misery and illness? And will Meri and Tens' own romance weather the storms of new discoveries?

Be afraid, be very afraid...
Hey, I fell in love with MERIDIAN ages ago and when expectations are high, I'm always afraid of being disappointed. WILDCAT FIREFLIES only left me disappointed that I had to wait so long for more of this fabulous story!


Meridian is still one of the most real teens in YA. Strong, determined yet vulnerable and insecure. She struggles with loss, her strange powers and her blooming relationship with Tens - okay, still not a fan of this name but it's growing on me - and their relationship is one of my favorite parts of WILDCAT FIREFLIES. 


Let's talk about sex, baby...
Thrown together on this road trip to find and protect other Fenestras, Meridian and Tens are also trying to figure out their own relationship. Meridian is wondering about taking it to the next level, and her inner thoughts cracked me up. 


Some of the most hysterical moments come when she's trying to talk to Tens about sex. It's sweet, as well as funny because it's so real and painfully awkward. As Ten's character unfolds you can't help but love him. 


A new POV...
Juliet is a new character with her own point of view. Resilient, interesting and unique in her own right, her sad story intertwines seamlessly into the plot. I love how all the pieces melded together. 


A trip to the dark side...
The whole good vs evil battle takes center stage and Amber Kizer doesn't shy away from the malevolent aspects, but you also get love, hope, faith, loyalty, friendship, family and a generous dose of humor. 


Meridian fans rejoice!
Smooth writing, excellent storytelling, and although at times the pace slowed as Meridian and Tens did a lot of sleuthing, overall I adored it! I highly recommend WILDCAT FIREFLIES - for older teens - as a fantastic addition to your summer reading list! 

And if you haven't read Meridian, get to it!

Half-human, half-angel, Meridian Sozu has a dark responsibility.Sixteen-year-old Meridian has been surrounded by death ever since she can remember. As a child, insects, mice, and salamanders would burrow into her bedclothes and die. At her elementary school, she was blamed for a classmate's tragic accident. And on her sixteenth birthday, a car crashes in front of her family home and Meridian's body explodes in pain.
Before she can fully recover, Meridian is told that she's a danger to her family and hustled off to her great-aunt's house in Revelation, Colorado. It's there that she learns that she is a Fenestra ; the half-angel, half-human link between the living and the dead. But Meridian and her sworn protector and love, Tens, face great danger from the Aternocti, a band of dark forces who capture vulnerable souls on the brink of death and cause chaos.

Amber Kizer writes two very different young adult series for Delacorte Press/Random House. The Gert Garibaldi series is contemporary, frank and funny following an American high school student through the perils of growing up. Her debut novel ONE BUTT CHEEK AT A TIME was included in the prestigious NYPL Best Books for the Teen Age 2008 list. The next book in the series 7 KINDS OF ORDINARY CATASTROPHES will be released April 2011.
The Fenestra series is paranormal, dark and follows a girl who shepherds dying souls to the afterlife. MERIDIAN has been translated in German, Spanish, Turkish and will be available in Australia, Malaysia, and New Zealand within the next year. The next book in the series, WILDCAT FIREFLIES, will be published in August 2011.
In addition to these series titles, the spring of 2012 will see the release of a stand alone dystopian, young adult novel also from Delacorte Press/Random House.
Amber has toured nationally, speaking at writers’ conferences, on television and radio, to educators, and to teenage readers. Recently, she was selected to present one of a few breakout sessions at the NCTE Assembly on Adolescent Literature at the Philadelphia 2009 Conference.