SWEET NIGHTMARE

Calder Academy, a boarding school for delinquent paranormals, may as well be a prison for Clementine.

Clementine Calder has spent her whole life on the isolated Texas island campus of the school for paranormal teens whose powers pose a danger to others. Calder Academy houses everyone from witches to vampires, suppressing their magic and forcing them to coexist. Now that her senior year has arrived, Clementine wants nothing more than to graduate and move away. But the headmaster—her mother—is clear that she’s not going to let Clementine ever leave and experience the real world: “Just remember, Clementine, dreams can be prisons, too.” Beyond the issues with her family, Clementine has spent the last three years avoiding Jude Abernathy-Lee, her childhood best friend who ghosted her, seemingly without reason. When a Category 5 hurricane hits the island, Clementine is forced to work with Jude and suddenly finds herself at the center of a waking nightmare that will change the course of her life—and of Calder Academy—forever. Set in the same universe as Wolff’s Crave series, this spinoff is easy to dive into, although the flat, uninspired romance and core narrative leave something to be desired. Clementine is cued white; Jude’s father is Korean (his mother’s background isn’t named), and there’s racial diversity in the supporting cast.

Enjoyable but ultimately forgettable; will appeal to fans of the original series.