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 uniquely arranged bouquet of terrors, as disturbing as it is beautiful.
A family’s secrets rise to the surface as a young man investigates a suspected murder.
Evander, who’s 17 and lonely, never leaves his room in the manor on Hazelthorn Estate. He’s told he’s too fragile and is locked away “for his safety” while an elderly butler feeds him brain-addling “medicine.” But one night changes Evander’s life—and the manor’s future—forever. Byron Lennox-Hall, Evander’s billionaire guardian and the family’s patriarch, dies unexpectedly. Relatives descend upon Hazelthorn like vultures as a shocking twist reveals that Byron left everything to Evander alone. Without Byron around to keep his only grandchild and presumed heir, Laurence “Laurie” Lennox-Hall, away from his ward, Laurie and Evander become the unlikeliest of allies. When they were boys, Laurie attempted to kill Evander—but, maddeningly, Evander can’t stop thinking about him. He also suspects that someone murdered Byron. Drews’ latest starts off as a straightforward whodunit and turns into something that’s far more sinister—and delicious. From descriptions of moth-eaten decay to vivid floral imagery, Drews luxuriates in atmospheric prose. Their literary green thumb nurtures intertwining themes of monstrosity and abuse alongside yearning, first love, queerness, and mystery. The slow-burn romance at the root of this blend of gothic and body horror is as tender as it is unforgettable. Evander is cued as autistic, and main characters present white.
A uniquely arranged bouquet of terrors, as disturbing as it is beautiful. (author’s note) (Horror. 13-18)Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781250376299
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
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
BOOK REVIEW
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