A detail-bloated but utterly addictive ghost story.
Nancy Drew meets Ghost Hunters in this queer thriller.
High school junior Dare Chase is headed to New Hope, Virginia. After her boyfriend broke up with her, their ghost-hunting YouTube series came to an end. Now, she has accepted a monthlong internship restoring the Arrington Estate where 17-year-old Atheleen Bell mysteriously drowned in 1992—the subject of Dare’s new podcast, Attachments. Dare clicks with the two other interns: Holly, a local teen desperate to leave her hometown, and college student Quinn, who is assisting her mother, who owns the estate and wants to convert it into a museum. As Dare and Quinn take tentative steps toward a romantic relationship—Dare’s first with another girl—the trio begins to experience signs of the paranormal, including scratching in the walls, a haunted doll, and ominous painted messages. Could the spirit of Atheleen be responsible, or does the mystery go even deeper? Marsh gives Dare a strong, confident voice, portraying her Type 1 diabetes as a challenge she gains strength from learning to handle responsibly. The female-centered cast is shown to be both complex and human. Segments from Attachments appear only at the beginning and end—the story would have benefited from more—and the backstory grows heavy, leaving readers with too many names to track and derailing the otherwise exceptional plot. The book follows a White default; Quinn has a White mom and Puerto Rican dad.
A detail-bloated but utterly addictive ghost story. (Paranormal. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-984836-15-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
An affecting supernatural mystery with a pair of brave protagonists.
The disappearance of a child unveils what lies hiding in the woods at the edge of a small town.
There are all sorts of stories about Picnic, Illinois, but it’s not until her toddler cousin, Madison, goes missing from her crib one night that 15-year-old Luce starts to believe them—and especially when she notices a pair of glowing, wolflike eyes through the windows of her house. To everybody’s relief, Madison is returned to her crib, seemingly safe and sound, soon after she vanished, but Luce and the child’s mother notice discomfiting differences in the 2-year-old. And yet, no one else seems to give credence to their concerns. Luce, prompted by a teacher, starts to research Picnic’s history and the many disappearances—and sudden reappearances—of baby girls, going back decades. Meanwhile, deep in the woods, Fanya, who narrates alternating chapters, tends to the baby girl and prepares for the ritual to welcome her as part of her pack when the full moon comes. As Luce’s and Fanya’s stories converge, so do past and present in Lund’s atmospheric novel. The story borrows elements from South Slavic lore about women who turn into animals to tell an affecting tale about small-town secrets, wronged people, and the bravery of two girls bent on getting to the truth in order to save lives. All characters are assumed White.
An affecting supernatural mystery with a pair of brave protagonists. (Paranormal thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-35109-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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