An unevenly executed but often engaging supernatural thriller with elements of comedy.
In Reefe’s horror novel, a teenage girl possessed by a demon battles a local legend known as the Goatman.
The story begins in Bowie, Maryland, in the fall of 1988. Kate Dwyer starts having disturbing dreams around the same time that her new neighbor, Maya Suárez Martinez, moves into an abandoned house that used to belong to a serial killer called the the Butcher of Bowie; some believe that the killer is a boogeyman-like monster called the Goatman. It turns out that a demon named Raga is inhabiting Kate’s body; Maya, who’s a witch, helps her navigate her relationship with the demon possessing her using her own magical knowledge, charms, and family’s spell book. Then Steve and Chris, Kate’s brothers, return to town, and it’s revealed that they’re monster hunters. With her friends, Theresa Petruzzo and Jackie Engert, they investigate the Glenn Dale hospital and take on a monster called the Bunnyman. Afterward, Jackie and Kate’s crush, Jake Shaw, go missing, and Kate’s investigation reveals that Jake has been looking into the Goatman case on his own. The story eventually involves another powerful demon; the young monster-hunting crew, with the help of Raga and Maya, are soon on a multistep mission to destroy it. However, a few twists occur that make their quest far more difficult than expected. Reefe’s novel stars a colorful assortment of heroic and villainous characters, including a sassy protagonist, a highly perceptive witch, and a Twinkie-loving demon. The dialogue throughout the novel is sometimes quite funny, especially when the teenagers’ mannerisms begin to rub off on the demonic Raga: “That ghost was pissed”; “Your brother has serious issues.” However, the complicated plot can feel a bit muddled at times, and readers may find it difficult to follow due to its pacing, which proceeds at a brisk clip.
An unevenly executed but often engaging supernatural thriller with elements of comedy.Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9781627205344
Page Count: 342
Publisher: Apprentice House
Review Posted Online: March 6, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.
A frustrated advice columnist takes matters into her own hands.
Before dropping out of MIT during the second semester of her sophomore year, Debbie Mullen had designs on becoming the next Bill Gates. Now, almost 30 years later, the stay-at-home wife and mother of two uses her considerable genius to keep the Mullens’ Hingham, Massachusetts, household functioning “like a well-oiled machine.” In her spare time, Debbie also gardens and shares “the fruits of [her] wisdom” with neighbors via the weekly advice column she writes for Hingham Household, a local “family-oriented” newspaper. Though Debbie is proud of her husband and teen daughters’ accomplishments, her own life sometimes feels a bit empty. As such, she’s both honored and excited when Home Gardening magazine selects her backyard to feature in their next issue. Then, at the last minute, the publication decides to go in a different direction and instead spotlights the roses of her arch rival. Later that day, the editor-in-chief of Hingham Household axes her column because she’d counseled a reader to get a divorce. That evening, Debbie learns that her hard-working husband’s miserly boss refused his promotion request, her brilliant older daughter’s sketchy boyfriend broke her heart, and her athletically gifted younger daughter’s chauvinistic coach cut her from the soccer team for being “chubby.” Enough is enough. Debbie has always given great advice—everybody says so. If certain individuals don’t know what’s best for themselves, maybe it’s her obligation to help them see the light. Increasingly unhinged entries from a “Dear Debbie” drafts folder pepper the briskly paced, meticulously crafted tale, which unfolds courtesy of a pinwheeling first-person narrative. Some of the plot’s myriad twists are more impressive than others, but plucky, puckish Debbie is a nontraditional antihero for the ages.
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249624
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
Recommended reading for every paranoid suburbanite who’s considering a move to the city, or to the Arctic wilds.
Character assassination reigns supreme, if not uncontested, in a Long Island suburb.
April Masterson loves her husband, corporate attorney Elliott; their 7-year-old, Bobby; and her YouTube channel, “April’s Sweet Secrets.” What she doesn’t love is whoever’s texting her warnings about how Bobby isn’t really in their backyard while she’s busy filming her videos or withering critiques of her baking show or veiled accusations about her past and threats about her present. Her best friend, former prosecutor Julie Bressler, may be bossy and opinionated, but surely she’d never turn on April this way. Who else might know enough to send April goodies like a picture of her kissing Mark Tanner, Bobby’s soccer coach? Though April struggles to get Elliot to take her ordeal seriously, even when she shows up at his office for a lunch date, he’s protected by his receptionist, Brianna Anderson, whose attachment to her boss goes far beyond loyalty. Then Julie turns on her; Maria Cooper, her friendly new next-door neighbor, turns on her; and in the most mind-boggling scene, Doris Kirkland, April’s mother, whose dementia has brought her to a nursing home, turns on her. McFadden releases an escalating series of toxins so deftly into the suburban atmosphere that it’s practically an anticlimax when someone gets killed and April instantly becomes the prime suspect. But that’s only a setup for the tale’s boldest move: switching its narrator from April to a fair-weather friend who frames the whole nightmare in dramatically different terms. As a special gift to her savviest fans, the author throws in an even more jolting epilogue that’s as hard to forget as it is to believe.
Recommended reading for every paranoid suburbanite who’s considering a move to the city, or to the Arctic wilds.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249600
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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