Harrowing and hypnotic.
After his mother’s death in a car accident, a lonely and introspective teen’s unusual gift leads him down a winding road of startling revelation.
Poet Lee Sanford, no stranger to visions, had a vision of his mother’s death before it happened, and he and his snarky younger sister, Murphy, suspect their tyrannical stepfather, Horace (aka the county sheriff), might be responsible. In a panic, they knock him down, steal his Trans Am, and head to the Farm, their estranged grandmother’s remote homestead and former commune in blighted Benign, Louisiana. Grandma welcomes them and encourages Lee to explore his visions and commune with the Spirit that exists in the natural world. Murphy thinks Grandma is hiding something (the barn is locked up tight), but Lee is filled with new purpose. Questions arise from Lee’s visions of his deceased uncle, the blond, blue-eyed Jeremiah, who was a revered evangelist, and Lee is captivated by Jeremiah’s tape-recorded sermons, which he finds hidden. He also develops feelings for his Grandma’s tenant, Cass. Soon, however, events take an ominous turn, a rift grows between Lee and Murphy, and he faces shattering choices. Cajoleas’ (The Good Demon, 2018, etc.) atmospheric, often bloody, tale, steeped in mysticism and the occult, raises questions of fate, belonging, acceptance, and spirituality, and Lee’s narrative will resonate with anyone who has ever felt left out. All characters are assumed white.
Harrowing and hypnotic. (Horror. 13-adult)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3904-0
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
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
Cracking page-turner with a multiethnic band of misfits with differing sexual orientations who satisfyingly, believably jell...
Adolescent criminals seek the haul of a lifetime in a fantasyland at the beginning of its industrial age.
The dangerous city of Ketterdam is governed by the Merchant Council, but in reality, large sectors of the city are given over to gangs who run the gambling dens and brothels. The underworld's rising star is 17-year-old Kaz Brekker, known as Dirtyhands for his brutal amorality. Kaz walks with chronic pain from an old injury, but that doesn't stop him from utterly destroying any rivals. When a councilman offers him an unimaginable reward to rescue a kidnapped foreign chemist—30 million kruge!—Kaz knows just the team he needs to assemble. There's Inej, an itinerant acrobat captured by slavers and sold to a brothel, now a spy for Kaz; the Grisha Nina, with the magical ability to calm and heal; Matthias the zealot, hunter of Grishas and caught in a hopeless spiral of love and vengeance with Nina; Wylan, the privileged boy with an engineer's skills; and Jesper, a sharpshooter who keeps flirting with Wylan. Bardugo broadens the universe she created in the Grisha Trilogy, sending her protagonists around countries that resemble post-Renaissance northern Europe, where technology develops in concert with the magic that's both coveted and despised. It’s a highly successful venture, leaving enough open questions to cause readers to eagerly await Volume 2.
Cracking page-turner with a multiethnic band of misfits with differing sexual orientations who satisfyingly, believably jell into a family . (Fantasy. 14 & up)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-62779-212-7
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
