By turns brooding and ghoulish, this old-fashioned gothic horror story is one lively read.
Looking younger than his 15 years but hardened by a life on the streets of 19th-century London, Billy accidentally befriends a monstrous man in this electrifying story set against the events of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
Struggling to survive in Dickensian squalor, Billy—orphan, thief and former chimney sweep—has resorted to picking corpses’ pockets. No one is as surprised as Billy when his newest target wakes and saves Billy from vicious attackers. The rescuer’s frightful appearance masks an Austen-loving, French-speaking and vegetarian soul. Though perpetually repulsed by “Mister Creecher,” Billy agrees to spy upon Victor Frankenstein in exchange for protection. Pursuing Frankenstein and the promise of a female companion for Creecher, the unlikely duo follows the doctor out of London and into the untamed countryside, where they encounter grave robbers, circus sideshow performers and love. Creecher is often a more sympathetic character than Billy, but both figures evolve appreciably during their journey. Priestly combines a coming-of-age story with the gloomy atmosphere, moral dilemmas and slow pacing of Shelly’s classic and the grime and casual cruelty of Dickens’ Oliver Twist. Observant readers may also notice allusions to monster movies and Romantic poets.
By turns brooding and ghoulish, this old-fashioned gothic horror story is one lively read. (author’s note) (Fiction. 12 & up)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-59990-703-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2011
Lush, angsty, queer horror.
When the monsters they imagine come to life, two boys fight for their lives—and each other.
Andrew Perrault, who’s from Australia, writes beautiful, macabre fairy tales. His roommate at his American boarding school, Wickwood Academy, is talented artist Thomas Rye, who brings his stories to vivid life in paint and charcoal. Andrew’s twin sister, Dove, is all but ignoring him, so he has plenty of time to focus on Thomas’ increasingly odd behavior. Thomas’ parents disappeared just before the new school year started, and Andrew noticed blood on his roommate’s sleeve on their first day back. When he follows Thomas into the forest one night, Andrew discovers him fighting one of the monsters that Thomas has drawn from these stories. The boys soon find themselves coping with vicious bullies by day and fighting monsters by night. At the same time, Andrew struggles to reconcile his feelings for Thomas with his growing awareness of his own asexuality. But when the sinister Antler King breaches Wickwood’s walls, Andrew realizes that he and Thomas may not survive their own creations. This novel, written in rich, extravagant prose, features frank portrayals of disordered eating, self-harm, bullying, and mental illness. Andrew grapples realistically with his sexual identity, and the story has ample genuinely creepy moments with the monsters. Andrew, Thomas, and Dove are white.
Lush, angsty, queer horror. (content warning) (Horror. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2024
ISBN: 9781250895660
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter.
After a Nigerian British girl goes off to an exclusive boarding school that seems to prey on less-privileged students, she discovers there might be some truth behind an urban legend.
Ife Adebola joins the Urban Achievers scholarship program at pricey, high-pressure Nithercott School, arriving shortly after a student called Leon mysteriously disappeared. Gossip says he’s a victim of the glowing-eyed Changing Man who targets the lonely, leaving them changed. Ife doesn’t believe in the myth, but amid the stresses of Nithercott’s competitive, privileged, majority-white environment, where she is constantly reminded of her state school background, she does miss her friends and family. When Malika, a fellow Black scholarship student, disappears and then returns, acting strangely devoid of personality, Ife worries the Changing Man is real—and that she’s next. Ife joins forces with classmate Bijal and Benny, Leon’s younger brother, to uncover the truth about who the Changing Man is and what he wants. Culminating in a detailed, gory, and extended climactic battle, this verbose thriller tempts readers with a nefarious mystery involving racial and class-based violence but never quite lives up to its potential and peters out thematically by its explosive finale. However, this debut offers highly visually evocative and eerie descriptions of characters and events and will appeal to fans of creature horror, social commentary, and dark academia.
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781250868138
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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