A compelling premise that lacks needed depth.
Vampire siblings are turned back into mortal teenagers and forced to attend high school in Nowhere, Iowa.
Charlotte and her brother, Reginald, have been vampires for a century now, but after Charlie almost kills a human and Reg gets involved, their punishment is to become mortal again. Charlie tries repeatedly to persuade the Elders to make them back into vampires. In the meantime, they reluctantly agree to attend Hope High School. Charlie’s assumption that she’ll fit right in as the new queen bee is quickly dashed, but eventually she and Reg make friends, find love interests, and start to appreciate certain aspects of human life like sunlight and coffee. When the opportunity to regain her immortality finally comes but with severe stipulations, Charlie has to decide who she truly wants to be. Charlie’s first-person narration is inviting and amusing as she walks a fine line between confident and egotistical. Her growth drives the story, though some of her changes feel too abrupt. However, the tale falls into tired tropes: Reg is lovable but ultimately comes across as an underdeveloped queer sidekick, and the ending of his story arc is unsatisfying. An important paranormal power is briefly explained as originating from a long-ago Indigenous woman. Enough is left open at the end of the book for a potential sequel, but it comes at the detriment of this story, which is left feeling incomplete with underexplored worldbuilding. Main characters are implied White.
A compelling premise that lacks needed depth. (Paranormal. 13-18)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-321911-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
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
A high-concept premise that falls short in its execution.
A teenage girl finds herself alone after everyone else in her town mysteriously disappears, leaving her scrambling to figure out how to find them all.
One late summer day, everybody in July Fielding’s town disappears. She is left to piece together what happened, following a series of cryptic signs she finds around town urging her to “GET THEM BACK.” The narrative moves back and forth between July’s present and the events of the summer before, when her relationship with her best friend, cross-country team co-captain Sydney, starts to fracture due to a combination of jealousy over July’s new relationship with a cute boy called Sam and sweet up-and-coming freshman Ella’s threatening to overtake Syd’s status as star of the track team. The team members participate in a ritual in which they jump off a cliff into the rocky waters below at the end of their Friday practice runs. Though Ella is reluctant, Syd pressures her to jump. Short, frenetically paced sections move the story along quickly, and there is much foreshadowing pointing to something terrible that occurred at the end of that summer, which may be the key to July’s current predicament, but there is much misdirection too. Ultimately this is a story without enough setup to make the turn the book takes in the end feel fully developed or earned. All characters read white.
A high-concept premise that falls short in its execution. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9780593327173
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
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