Another smart Goodnight caper
A ghost-whispering 17-year-old is roped into a cinematic showdown between the FBI and the mob.
Clement-Moore introduces another magical teen detective from the Goodnight family, following on Amy’s adventures from Texas Gothic (2011). College freshman Daisy is accustomed to helping out the FBI on cases. Adorable Agent Taylor doesn’t consult with the teen psychic because she’s cute—much as Daisy might wish otherwise—but because her ability to read spirit remnants has helped them catch murderers before. While Daisy interrogates the dead bodyguard of a kidnapped girl, she’s snatched herself, spirited away by the girl’s crime-boss father. Soon, Daisy is on a madcap road trip across the Great Lakes states in the company of a disturbingly attractive young mobster, learning about Egyptology while avoiding erstwhile apocalyptic cultists. A CGI-ready climax pulls together all the metaphysical building blocks laid down in this mystery’s tight worldbuilding (not to mention mummies, ghosts, animated tattoos and a bonus dinosaur). This likable, uber-competent heroine’s adventure combines elements of paranormal romance and fast-paced thriller, while Daisy herself resembles a Southern teen version of supernatural PI Harry Dresden from Jim Butcher’s best-selling adult series.
Another smart Goodnight caper . (Paranormal mystery. 13 & up)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-385-74080-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: March 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2013
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 spiritual, intriguing, though somewhat uneven take on life, grief, and healing.
A high school senior returns to her family home—after she’s been dead for years.
Forman’s ability to capture the voices of teens shines in this heart-wrenching story of Amber Crane’s life, death, and (sort of) undeath. Amber, who reads white, died seven years ago, but on this day just before graduation, she’s standing in her family home, seemingly alive. The first people to see Amber are her mother—who, clearly in shock, starts screaming—and her younger sister, Missy, who’s now a blue-haired teenager. Amber doesn’t even realize she’s supposed to be dead until Missy tells her so. And that’s when the work of trying to make sense of what Amber’s doing here kicks into gear. Told from myriad points of view—so many, one could get lost—the novel threads together the lives of people in Amber’s orbit (and even some who didn’t know her directly), incorporating current-day perspectives as well as ones from the past. The story even goes as far back as 29 years, to the day when Amber’s parents met. While some of the backstory feels extraneous, and the chapters written from adults’ perspectives feel less compelling than those of the teen lead, Forman continually returns to Amber’s point of view, grounding her as the heart of this story, a necessary device to keep readers invested in the enduring question: Why is she back?
A spiritual, intriguing, though somewhat uneven take on life, grief, and healing. (author’s note) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780063346147
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
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