FRATERNITY

Queer teenagers unleash literal and metaphorical demons.

In 1991, Zachary “Zooey” Orson Jr. leaves his fancy Upper East Side high school after a scandal involving a teacher and is starting his sophomore year at an even fancier all-boys boarding school in Adders Lair, Massachusetts. He’s immediately targeted by both the school bully and the Vicious Circle, a well-established secret society of gay and bi students. Little does Zooey know that several VC members—campy queen Leo; his athlete boyfriend, Daniel; and Steven, who reads like a stereotype of an autistic person—have stolen a grimoire from the headmaster’s desk and used it to make their lives a little easier. Homophobia and supernatural events collide, but after a delightfully intriguing first third, the story veers toward the sentimental. While an ancient evil force named Frateroth threatens the world via conspiracy tropes that, through referencing Hebrew and the control of banking, unfortunately evoke antisemitic stereotypes, the plot becomes bogged down with an overt desire to teach important lessons about history (ACT UP, Stonewall), racism (Zooey is White and Korean and passes as White; Daniel is Black), biphobia, and other topics through plot points that feel shoehorned-in and anachronistic flights of exposition. Teen readers with a taste for horror will have fun and they might learn something, but the two elements form an awkward whole.

A ripping tale that ends up missing the mark.