A genre-blending, involving, ghostly journey through time.
A YA novel set in an old asylum and based on an unlikely friendship.
The novel opens in 2022. Anne Blake is 15, and her father, Jackson, has just landed in a mental hospital in a small town in Massachusetts after behaving erratically. It seems he may have some kind of bipolar disorder, and Anne and her mother are distraught yet understanding. The hospital where Jackson is recovering happens to be near the Thornwood Lunatic Asylum, a place he and others want to save as part of the nonprofit Save Thornwood organization. If Thornwood is torn down, the active hospital will go with it, which will force people to travel to Boston for health services. Back in the 1800s, Mary Donovan is 15. Mary and her brother Jamie are sent to Thornwood by their cruel aunt. When Anne encounters what appears to be Mary’s ghost in 2022, Mary asks for help. Here, the narrative upends the typical ghost story. Mary and Anne are very real to each other, and they wind up meeting on a regular basis. Mary even gets to try modern ice cream for some comic relief. But how does one help someone who has been dead for over a century? Rust and Surface’s inventive setup alternates between Mary’s and Anne’s narrations and mixes elements of time travel, mental health awareness, harsh 19th-century mental health “treatments” (such as locking patients in a box for “several hours up to several days”), teenage drama, and the supernatural. It’s a unique mélange that keeps readers guessing about what comes next and in which century it will occur. Occasionally, the dialogue drifts toward the obvious. At one point, Anne observes, “My heart is beating erratically now.” Elsewhere Mary says, “On my way to the graveyard, I try to quell the fluttering in my stomach, but I can’t.” Still, the pages fly by as readers race to learn the fate of Thornwood and all its residents.
A genre-blending, involving, ghostly journey through time.Pub Date: July 17, 2025
ISBN: 9781949140583
Page Count: 358
Publisher: Yap Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
