A promising setup let down by lackluster personalities and a disappointing plot.
The case of a missing New Orleans girl reveals buried secrets.
April Whitman, Vivian Atkins, and Piper Johnson are debutantes in the annual Les Masques ball for high school girls. Chosen as Maids for senior Lily LeBlanc, who’s been crowned Queen, they’re considered to be Mardi Gras royalty. But following Lily’s grand entrance at Les Masques, the lights go out. Suddenly images of Margot Landry, the previous Queen, who was found dead from an overdose the day after last year’s ball, are projected in the ballroom—and, in a scene out of Carrie, one of the masked Jesters throws red paint over Lily before running off. Ominously, Lily never returns home. The Maids—Lily’s best friend, Vivian, her boyfriend’s twin sister, Piper, and her friend April (who also had ties to Margot)—receive texts from Lily asking them to meet her at the Deus Den, a warehouse where Mardi Gras floats are stored. After they arrive, Piper gets a cryptic email from Lily that leads them to find her signature diamond necklace, sparking a police investigation. The atmospheric, well-described New Orleans setting brings much-needed personality to the story, since the main characters are largely unremarkable. The flat characterization, coupled with an unsatisfying resolution, together make the journey feel unfulfilling. The debutante tradition’s racist, classist, and sexist origins are brought up but not fleshed out enough to make an impact. Main characters are cued white.
A promising setup let down by lackluster personalities and a disappointing plot. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2024
ISBN: 9781250881465
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
A treat for mystery readers who enjoy being kept in suspense.
Everyone believes that Salil Singh killed his girlfriend, Andrea Bell, five years ago—except Pippa Fitz-Amobi.
Pip has known and liked Sal since childhood; he’d supported her when she was being bullied in middle school. For her senior capstone project, Pip researches the disappearance of former Fairview High student Andie, last seen on April 18, 2014, by her younger sister, Becca. The original investigation concluded with most of the evidence pointing to Sal, who was found dead in the woods, apparently by suicide. Andie’s body was never recovered, and Sal was assumed by most to be guilty of abduction and murder. Unable to ignore the gaps in the case, Pip sets out to prove Sal’s innocence, beginning with interviewing his younger brother, Ravi. With his help, Pip digs deeper, unveiling unsavory facts about Andie and the real reason Sal’s friends couldn’t provide him with an alibi. But someone is watching, and Pip may be in more danger than she realizes. Pip’s sleuthing is both impressive and accessible. Online articles about the case and interview transcripts are provided throughout, and Pip’s capstone logs offer insights into her thought processes as new evidence and suspects arise. Jackson’s debut is well-executed and surprises readers with a connective web of interesting characters and motives. Pip and Andie are white, and Sal is of Indian descent.
A treat for mystery readers who enjoy being kept in suspense. (Mystery. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-9636-0
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 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
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