Expertly crafted, with most of the gory details left to the imagination.
In graphic versions of three previously published episodes, the “extreme family fun” offered at Freddy Fazbear’s Mega Pizzaplex runs to dismemberment and attacks by blob monsters.
Graphic in format but not—disappointingly, perhaps, to some readers—visual content, the tales feature mostly offstage carnage and rely heavily for their impact on suggestion and sound effects. In “Under Construction,” Maya has a Sweet 16 party with friends. They venture into in an augmented reality arcade that’s not quite ready for visitors, which she leaves (or so she thinks), only to find that people around her are dying of cancer and being replaced by hordes of weirdly blobby, pinkish, veined claylike figures. In the other stories, robots become gruesomely insistent on helping two young visitors lost in a maze, and a Pizzaplex workman named Grady gets caught in a series of looping tunnels meant for small children. The horrific consequences are visible as largely discreet splashes of gore. Maya’s extensive grief and a childhood experience of being locked in a closet that left Grady deeply cleithrophobic stir in some psychodrama, but the main appeal here can be summed up by the closing panel, which contains nothing but a bone-crunching “SPLURCH.” The art, though drawn and colored by a different set of artists for each story, has a consistent look throughout, and features a human cast that presents as racially diverse.
Expertly crafted, with most of the gory details left to the imagination. (Graphic horror. 12-16)Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781546128434
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
An action-packed, magic-filled exploration of natural resource abuse.
A coven of problem-solving witches takes on a mission that tests their friendship and bonds.
Witches Anadil, Hester, and Dot are summoned to Red Isle when the animals of the Dark Lands are found starving after sludge kills all the vegetation. Mother Sorastra, the leader of the Dark Lands, confronts Prince Lexius of the neighboring Light Lands, arguing that he’s abusing nature’s gift of raaka, a resource used to power clever inventions. But Prince Lexius blames Mother Sorastra for breaking a truce and causing the pollution. The conflict escalates when citizens of the Light Lands are murdered, and their facial features are erased. Pale, white-haired Anadil, brown-skinned, black-haired Hester, and Dot, who has brown skin and Afro-textured hair, arrive in time to stop the outbreak of war and attempt to solve the mystery of the face-stealing killer. When a coven of witches impersonating the trio appears, Anadil, Hester, and Dot must overcome their bickering and work through hurt feelings in order to band together and bring peace and balance to Red Isle. This graphic novel features cleverly realized characters: Anadil with her team of magical rats, Hester with her pet demon, and Dot with her ability to summon confectionary are memorable leads. The relationship between Anadil and Hester adds a hint of romance to the story, and the environmental themes add real-world relevance. Vivid illustrations with saturated colors create a fantastical backdrop for the fast-paced storyline.
An action-packed, magic-filled exploration of natural resource abuse. (Graphic fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: April 1, 2025
ISBN: 9780062979681
Page Count: 272
Publisher: HarperAlley
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli.
For two teenagers, a small town’s annual cautionary ritual becomes both a life- and a death-changing experience.
On the second Wednesday in June, every eighth grader in Amber Springs, Pennsylvania, gets a black shirt, the name and picture of a teen killed the previous year through reckless behavior—and the silent treatment from everyone in town. Like many of his classmates, shy, self-conscious Robbie “Worm” Tarnauer has been looking forward to Dead Wed as a day for cutting loose rather than sober reflection…until he finds himself talking to a strange girl or, as she would have it, “spectral maiden,” only he can see or touch. Becca Finch is as surprised and confused as Worm, only remembering losing control of her car on an icy slope that past Christmas Eve. But being (or having been, anyway) a more outgoing sort, she sees their encounter as a sign that she’s got a mission. What follows, in a long conversational ramble through town and beyond, is a day at once ordinary yet rich in discovery and self-discovery—not just for Worm, but for Becca too, with a climactic twist that leaves both ready, or readier, for whatever may come next. Spinelli shines at setting a tongue-in-cheek tone for a tale with serious underpinnings, and as in Stargirl (2000), readers will be swept into the relationship that develops between this adolescent odd couple. Characters follow a White default.
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli. (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-30667-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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