More engaging for the real-life characters than the paranormal ones.
Karma Moon, reluctant ghost hunter, discovers more than just the paranormal at a famously haunted hotel.
When her dad’s company gets a shot at filming a Netflix documentary series at the legendary Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, Karma Moon starts worrying about the “what-ifs” of possible ghostly terrors. Nevertheless, armed with her chunky pug, Alfred Hitchcock, and her boy-crazy best friend, Mags, superstitious Karma braves the trip, encountering a host of lively characters, including the ghost-hunting team, the on-site staff, a local boy named Nyx, and maybe a ghost or two. As far as scary stories go, Savage does well with setting the mood: There are chairs hanging from the ceiling, a piano that plays on its own, and creepy passageways. The ghosts themselves and the climactic reveal are less than thrilling, a safe bet for readers who prefer a spook to a terrifying scare. The real heart of the story is the “true-blue” friendship between Karma and Mags. There is a depth and ease to their relationship that feels just right, most notably when Mags comforts Karma over her mom, who’s left her behind. Spot art, a nod to Karma’s notes, adds little to the reading experience. Same goes for the bolded “WHAT-IFS” which inconsistently express both anxious Karma’s true worries and less impactful random thoughts. Characters are presumed White.
More engaging for the real-life characters than the paranormal ones. (Mystery. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-30279-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
Slick sleuthing punctuated by action on the boards and insights into differences that matter—and those that don’t.
Brothers, one neurodivergent, team up to shoot baskets and find a thief.
With the coach spit-bellowing at him to play better or get out, basketball tryouts are such a disaster for 11-year-old Green that he pelts out of the gym—becoming the chief suspect to everyone except his fiercely protective older brother, Cedar, when a valuable ring vanishes from the coach’s office. Used to being misunderstood, Green is less affected by the assumption of his guilt than Cedar, whose violent reactions risk his suspension. Switching narrative duties in alternating first-person chapters, the brothers join forces to search for clues to the real thief—amassing notes, eliminating possibilities (only with reluctance does Green discard Ringwraiths from his exhaustive list of possible perps), and, on the way to an ingenious denouement, discovering several schoolmates and grown-ups who, like Cedar, see Green as his own unique self, not just another “special needs” kid. In an author’s note, King writes that he based his title characters on family members, adding an element of conviction to his portrayals of Green as a smart, unathletic tween with a wry sense of humor and of Cedar’s attachment to him as founded in real affection, not just duty. Ultimately, the author finds positive qualities to accentuate in most of the rest of the cast too, ending on a tide of apologies and fence-mendings. Cedar and Green default to White.
Slick sleuthing punctuated by action on the boards and insights into differences that matter—and those that don’t. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-66590-261-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
A didactic blueprint disguised as a supernatural treasure map.
A girl who delights in the macabre harnesses her inherited supernatural ability.
It’s not just her stark white hair that makes 11-year-old Zee Puckett stand out in nowheresville Knobb’s Ferry. She’s a storyteller, a Mary Shelley fangirl, and is being raised by her 21-year-old high school dropout sister while their father looks for work upstate (cue the wayward glances from the affluent demography). Don’t pity her, because Zee doesn’t acquiesce to snobbery, bullying, or pretty much anything that confronts her. But a dog with bleeding eyes in a cemetery gives her pause—momentarily—because the beast is just the tip of the wicked that has this way come to town. Time to get some help from ghosts. The creepy supernatural current continues throughout, intermingled with very real forays into bullying (Zee won’t stand for it or for the notion that good girls need to act nice), body positivity, socio-economic status and social hierarchy, and mental health. This debut from a promising writer involves a navigation of caste systems, self-esteem, and villainy that exists in an interesting world with intriguing characters, but they receive a flat, two-dimensional treatment that ultimately makes the book feel like one is learning a ho-hum lesson in morality. Zee is presumably White (as is her rich-girl nemesis–cum-comrade, Nellie). Her best friend, Elijah, is cued as Black. Warning: this just might spur frenzied requests for Frankenstein.
A didactic blueprint disguised as a supernatural treasure map. (Supernatural. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-304460-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
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