Inconsistent in tone, with lackluster worldbuilding.
Reeling from a recent family trauma, a teen finds a chosen family in a coven of witches.
Freshman Elliot and his mother, the new vice principal at his Catholic high school, are recent transplants to Los Angeles. Before the move, Elliot’s father died by suicide, an event that was followed by Elliot’s own suicide attempt. On Elliot’s first day at school, a group of students sees evidence of his inherent ability with magic and asks him to join their coven. At an initiation ritual that night, the coven members identify their goals, apparently bringing them about through magical means. For example, sweet Rachel becomes a popular kid after wishing to be cool, and Elliot becomes clairvoyant after wishing to never be taken by surprise again. Meanwhile, an unidentified hooded figure occasionally appears and commands a demonic creature to kill people. This facet of the book’s worldbuilding is unexplained, and these extremely violent scenes feel misplaced in a story that’s otherwise light on horror. The full-color illustrations are cinematic in scope. Most members of the coven are queer, and the group is ethnically diverse; Elliot is white. Delightful queer chosen-family themes aside, the descriptions and portrayals of sexuality, gender identity, and gender expression are in many cases stereotypical or inaccurate.
Inconsistent in tone, with lackluster worldbuilding. (author’s note, character designs, volume 2 preview) (Graphic paranormal. 15-18)Pub Date: May 14, 2024
ISBN: 9781681160849
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Legendary Comics YA
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
A fast-paced supernatural mystery ideal for fans of horror games.
The game knows her darkest secret—and it might be trying to kill her.
Wracked with guilt over her little sister’s recent death, 17-year-old Vivian Reynolds leaps at the opportunity to play an online escape room horror game called Locked In that was anonymously emailed to her. In hopes that her return to streaming will help financially support her parents, Viv starts a practice playthrough by herself to test the waters. When the game asks her to confess a secret, Viv admits that she killed her sister. Uncanny events follow in the aftermath of her surreptitious confession, resulting in her parents and peers losing trust in her. With the help of Ash, a fellow social outcast, Viv becomes sure that a demonic clone is trying to ruin her life by committing heinous acts in her name. Told in Viv’s first-person perspective, the story has an eeriness that’s complemented by quippy jokes and gaming references. The plot twists are numerous and satisfying, helping to build suspense as readers try to figure out the mystery. Classic horror imagery is paired with a flawed protagonist who reckons with the guilt and grief caused by her habit of lying and her obsession with streaming. Viv’s mom is white, and her dad is Japanese American; Ash reads white.
A fast-paced supernatural mystery ideal for fans of horror games. (content warning) (Horror. 15-18)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2024
ISBN: 9798890030764
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Page Street
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
An intense gorefest that will please series fans.
Star-crossed teenaged girlfriends crank up the steam as gangsters, vampires, and drug-spawned monsters leave the streets of Jazz Age Harlem awash in gore in this duology closer.
While blood flows, spurts, or sprays on nearly every page amid a rising tide of gruesomely explicit dismemberments, sundered best friends Layla Quinn, a fanged reaper, who’s struggling to control her blood fury, and Elise Saint, the mortal scion of harsh antireaper regulators, slowly circle back toward one another. But as Layla puts it with both literal and metaphorical accuracy, “There is something rotting underneath Harlem.” Indeed, hardly have the two reunited at last in a passionate whirl of shuddering embraces, than an army of ravening evolved reapers arises. They’re made from human corpses and are dedicated to the forceful assertion of equal rights and housing opportunities for vampires of both the dead and undead sort. Can the smoldering duo form an alliance of regular reapers, gangsters, and ordinary humans to counter the threat and take out its sinister instigator? When it comes to Shakespearean references, Hamlet is just the beginning, and an opening chapter sentence declaring “this ends in blood” applies to far more than just the tragically romantic close. Most cast members are Black.
An intense gorefest that will please series fans. (Fantasy. 15-18)Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9781728297903
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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