A clever cocktail of psychological thriller and supernatural horror.
A young psychiatrist goes head-to-head with a patient with a reputation for driving caregivers mad.
It’s 2008, and Parker, the narrator of DeWitt’s crisp and creepy debut, is moved to blog about his experience treating Joe, an institutionalized young man with a terrifying ability to exploit others’ worst fears. Previous doctors have given up on Joe, left emotionally shaken by him; on Parker’s first day, one orderly exits Joe’s asylum room in hysterics, and soon after his nurse kills herself in despair. Still, Parker plunges in, inspired by youthful determination and a commitment to his profession. (His mother’s mental illness inspired him to pursue psychiatry.) Joe is initially polite and seemingly sane, an experience that cues a series of twists until Parker discovers the truth about whether Joe is misunderstood, mad, or something harder to define. DeWitt’s story exploits some well-worn tropes (“lunatics running the asylum” prominent among them) and nakedly evokes The Exorcist and Dracula (Parker’s name seems an homage to Stoker’s Jonathan Harker); subplots involving Parker’s fiancee and the asylum’s administration don’t have much life to them, and the nurse’s early departure spares the reader extended time with her clichéd Irish accent. But the central plot and storytelling are gripping, built on smart psychological parrying and good old-fashioned gross-outs: Parker recalls his mom pleading for help because “the damn maggots won’t crawl out of me, baby,” and Joe says he was haunted by a creature with “fly eyes and two big, superstrong spider arms” that “eats bad thoughts.” The story’s blog format gives the novel a casual, galloping pace (DeWitt posted an early version to a Reddit horror-fiction community), and the climactic confrontations between Parker and Joe are entertainingly intense.
A clever cocktail of psychological thriller and supernatural horror.Pub Date: July 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-358-18176-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
Though it falters a bit under its own weight, this series still has plenty of fight left.
In this long-awaited fifth installment of Shannon’s Bone Season series, the threat to the clairvoyant community spreads like a plague across Europe.
After extending her fight against the Republic of Scion to Paris, Paige Mahoney, leader of London’s clairvoyant underworld and a spy for the resistance movement, finds herself further outside her comfort zone when she wakes up in a foreign place with no recollection of getting there. More disturbing than her last definitive memory, in which her ally-turned-lover Arcturus seems to betray her, is that her dreamscape—the very soul of her clairvoyance—has been altered, as if there’s a veil shrouding both her memories and abilities. Paige manages to escape and learns she’s been missing and presumed dead for six months. Even more shocking is that she’s somehow outside of Scion’s borders, in the free world where clairvoyants are accepted citizens. She gets in touch with other resistance fighters and journeys to Italy to reconnect with the Domino Programme intelligence network. In stark contrast to the potential of life in the free world is the reality that Scion continues to stretch its influence, with Norway recently falling and Italy a likely next target. Paige is enlisted to discover how Scion is bending free-world political leaders to its will, but before Paige can commit to her mission, she has her own mystery to solve: Where in the world is Arcturus? Paige’s loyalty to Arcturus is tested as she decides how much to trust in their connection and how much information to reveal to the Domino Programme about the Rephaite—the race of immortals from the Netherworld, Arcturus’ people—and their connection to the founding of Scion, as well as the presence of clairvoyant abilities on Earth. While the book is impressively multilayered, the matter-of-fact way in which details from the past are sprinkled throughout will have readers constantly flipping to the glossary. As the series’ scope and the implications of the war against Scion expand, Shannon’s narrative style reads more action-thriller than fantasy. Paige’s powers as a dreamwalker are rarely used here, but when clairvoyance is at play, the story shines.
Though it falters a bit under its own weight, this series still has plenty of fight left.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9781639733965
Page Count: 576
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It's almost enough to make a person believe in ghosts.
A disturbing household secret has far-reaching consequences in this dark, unusual ghost story.
Mallory Quinn, fresh out of rehab and recovering from a recent tragedy, has taken a job as a nanny for an affluent couple living in the upscale suburb of Spring Brook, New Jersey, when a series of strange events start to make her (and her employers) question her own sanity. Teddy, the precocious and shy 5-year-old boy she's charged with watching, seems to be haunted by a ghost who channels his body to draw pictures that are far too complex and well formed for such a young child. At first, these drawings are rather typical: rabbits, hot air balloons, trees. But then the illustrations take a dark turn, showcasing the details of a gruesome murder; the inclusion of the drawings, which start out as stick figures and grow increasingly more disturbing and sophisticated, brings the reader right into the story. With the help of an attractive young gardener and a psychic neighbor and using only the drawings as clues, Mallory must solve the mystery of the house's grizzly past before it's too late. Rekulak does a great job with character development: Mallory, who narrates in the first person, has an engaging voice; the Maxwells' slightly overbearing parenting style and passive-aggressive quips feel very familiar; and Teddy is so three-dimensional that he sometimes feels like a real child.
It's almost enough to make a person believe in ghosts.Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-81934-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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