A compelling, ghostly tale interweaving romance and mystery with a thread of horror.
A haunted library holds the key to Este’s late father’s secrets—if she lives long enough to uncover them.
On learning she’s receiving a legacy scholarship to her father’s school, Radcliffe Prep, 16-year-old Este doesn’t care that it’s purportedly haunted. That’s before she tours its spectacular library and meets the gorgeous and enigmatic Mateo, who is not quite what he seems. After cajoling her into a restricted area to find an ancient tome about soul-harvesting Fades and (hopefully) how to eliminate them, Mateo vanishes with it, nearly getting Este expelled. Working night shifts as reparation, Este and the irritatingly irresistible Mateo follow clues left by her father about crucial missing pages in the book. Time is ticking, though; the deadly Fades infesting the library, responsible for multiple student disappearances, are now hunting Este. Lyrical prose builds a complex plot featuring a sympathetic protagonist whose growing connections with the labyrinthine library and its haunts push her living connections aside, to her detriment. A lively enemies-to-lovers romance offers a sweet counterpoint to Este’s poignant grief over her father’s death. Some plot elements may feel confusingly convoluted to readers, though, and the ultimate villain is easy to spot. Also, certain unaddressed practical issues may pull readers out of the story. Main characters read white; some racial diversity is cued in secondary characters.
A compelling, ghostly tale interweaving romance and mystery with a thread of horror. (Supernatural. 13-18)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9780063284630
Page Count: 368
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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
A high-concept premise that falls short in its execution.
A teenage girl finds herself alone after everyone else in her town mysteriously disappears, leaving her scrambling to figure out how to find them all.
One late summer day, everybody in July Fielding’s town disappears. She is left to piece together what happened, following a series of cryptic signs she finds around town urging her to “GET THEM BACK.” The narrative moves back and forth between July’s present and the events of the summer before, when her relationship with her best friend, cross-country team co-captain Sydney, starts to fracture due to a combination of jealousy over July’s new relationship with a cute boy called Sam and sweet up-and-coming freshman Ella’s threatening to overtake Syd’s status as star of the track team. The team members participate in a ritual in which they jump off a cliff into the rocky waters below at the end of their Friday practice runs. Though Ella is reluctant, Syd pressures her to jump. Short, frenetically paced sections move the story along quickly, and there is much foreshadowing pointing to something terrible that occurred at the end of that summer, which may be the key to July’s current predicament, but there is much misdirection too. Ultimately this is a story without enough setup to make the turn the book takes in the end feel fully developed or earned. All characters read white.
A high-concept premise that falls short in its execution. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9780593327173
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
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