Familiar, beloved characters are the highlights of a slightly hollow story.
A tale of star-crossed love and existential danger featuring characters from the uber-popular Monster High TV series.
When a tragic event robs Draculaura of her adoptive father, it also throws things into chaos for Monster High, where Dracula was the principal. A cemetery meet-cute with brooding but (unfortunately) human Poe leads to an ill-fated romance that will put them both in danger if Draculaura’s real identity is discovered by Poe’s monster-hunter father. As strange and dangerous events threaten the safety of everyone at Monster High, Draculaura discovers a secret about her family that forces her to decide once and for all where her loyalties lie. The trappings of the Monster High fandom are laid over a fairly standard genre framework, and although the beginning is quickly paced and compelling, the story gets bogged down in the middle and loses some steam. Draculaura, Cleo de Nile, Ghoulia Yelps, and the others aren’t fleshed out enough to hook newcomers to this world, but existing fans will likely be mostly satisfied despite the shallow characterizations and predictable plot. The nonstop puns, chirpy tone, and focus on friendship are true to the source material, though, and the cast members encompass many different types of monsters. Poe has tan skin, sandy hair, and blue eyes, and Draculaura is pale-skinned.
Familiar, beloved characters are the highlights of a slightly hollow story. (Paranormal. 13-18)Pub Date: July 16, 2024
ISBN: 9781419771040
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2024
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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