A suspenseful, grisly tale that’s sure to appeal to genre fans.
Carnage follows 16-year-old Nate, even as his family settles in a new town and he begrudgingly makes new friends.
The first deaths on Cherry Tree Lane, later dubbed “Murder Road” by the locals in the town of Belleview, happened in 1963. Over the years, through the murders that followed, legend told of the Hiding Boy, who partnered with evil to curse the street and its inhabitants. After Nate and his family move away from Belleview, he lands at Montgomery-Oakes High, where he meets the self-proclaimed Hell Chasers: Max, Tyler, and Seb. This group of friends is obsessed with investigating urban legends, and they invite Nate to join them. Even when these legends seem to come to life, the teens boldly go after the most gruesome of them all: the Hiding Boy. It’s back on Cherry Tree Lane that these tales go from spine-tingling to shocking and bloody. Ralph keeps readers on tenterhooks, and they’ll wonder why Nate’s family moved away, if what the Hell Chasers experience is actually real, and what truths lie behind the characters’ relationships. Seb and Nate are white; Max has brown skin and straight black hair, and Tyler is Black. The climactic scene is fittingly chaotic and blurry, creating a contrast with the tightness of the rest of the writing in this well-drawn story.
A suspenseful, grisly tale that’s sure to appeal to genre fans. (Horror. 13-18)Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9781250882189
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 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
Lush, angsty, queer horror.
When the monsters they imagine come to life, two boys fight for their lives—and each other.
Andrew Perrault, who’s from Australia, writes beautiful, macabre fairy tales. His roommate at his American boarding school, Wickwood Academy, is talented artist Thomas Rye, who brings his stories to vivid life in paint and charcoal. Andrew’s twin sister, Dove, is all but ignoring him, so he has plenty of time to focus on Thomas’ increasingly odd behavior. Thomas’ parents disappeared just before the new school year started, and Andrew noticed blood on his roommate’s sleeve on their first day back. When he follows Thomas into the forest one night, Andrew discovers him fighting one of the monsters that Thomas has drawn from these stories. The boys soon find themselves coping with vicious bullies by day and fighting monsters by night. At the same time, Andrew struggles to reconcile his feelings for Thomas with his growing awareness of his own asexuality. But when the sinister Antler King breaches Wickwood’s walls, Andrew realizes that he and Thomas may not survive their own creations. This novel, written in rich, extravagant prose, features frank portrayals of disordered eating, self-harm, bullying, and mental illness. Andrew grapples realistically with his sexual identity, and the story has ample genuinely creepy moments with the monsters. Andrew, Thomas, and Dove are white.
Lush, angsty, queer horror. (content warning) (Horror. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2024
ISBN: 9781250895660
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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