A genuinely creepy ghost story that delves into religious trauma.
Ghost hunters seek to solve a decades-old mystery in this compelling horror debut.
Two years ago, the foursome behind the “Ghost Hawks” YouTube channel—Riley Fox, Evelyn Cho, Colton Pierce, and Ethan Hale—spent the night at a Catholic reform school with the goal of finding out what happened to the five students and one priest who mysteriously disappeared from Saint Dominic Savio’s School for Troubled Youths over winter break in 1982. Though four young YouTubers entered the building to investigate that night, only three left. Two years later, the remaining Ghost Hawks are offered a chance to return to Dominic House with Jordan Jones, the woman behind the popular Netflix ghost-hunting series Spirit Seekers, to film their experience. Though Jordan is offering them monetary compensation, 18-year-old Riley’s primary reason for acquiescing is to figure out what happened to their missing friend, his boyfriend, Ethan. The book’s format, which switches between the events of two years ago and the present day, lends an urgency to the story; readers will likely not want to put it down. Its plot-driven nature, though, leaves little room for character development, other than that of bad boy Colton, who’s been ostracized for selling out his friends to the tabloids. Most characters read white; Evelyn’s name signals Korean heritage, and Jordan is cued Black.
A genuinely creepy ghost story that delves into religious trauma. (Horror. 14-18)Pub Date: July 16, 2024
ISBN: 9780063324855
Page Count: 304
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Perhaps a more genuinely enlightened protagonist would have made this debut more engaging
Audrey Rose Wadsworth, 17, would rather perform autopsies in her uncle’s dark laboratory than find a suitable husband, as is the socially acceptable rite of passage for a young, white British lady in the late 1800s.
The story immediately brings Audrey into a fractious pairing with her uncle’s young assistant, Thomas Cresswell. The two engage in predictable rounds of “I’m smarter than you are” banter, while Audrey’s older brother, Nathaniel, taunts her for being a girl out of her place. Horrific murders of prostitutes whose identities point to associations with the Wadsworth estate prompt Audrey to start her own investigation, with Thomas as her sidekick. Audrey’s narration is both ponderous and polemical, as she sees her pursuit of her goals and this investigation as part of a crusade for women. She declares that the slain aren’t merely prostitutes but “daughters and wives and mothers,” but she’s also made it a point to deny any alignment with the profiled victims: “I am not going as a prostitute. I am simply blending in.” Audrey also expresses a narrow view of her desired gender role, asserting that “I was determined to be both pretty and fierce,” as if to say that physical beauty and liking “girly” things are integral to feminism. The graphic descriptions of mutilated women don’t do much to speed the pace.
Perhaps a more genuinely enlightened protagonist would have made this debut more engaging . (Historical thriller. 15-18)Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-316-27349-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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