In Matthews’ debut supernatural YA novel, a teenage Southern belle attempts to fit into a new environment—but she still stands out for one menacing soul.
After her mother and father die in a gruesome car accident, Edie St. John goes to live with her uncle Landon, a famous horror novelist in the small town of Grimsby. Driving to her first day of school, she gets lost and pulls over at a mansion in the woods. After seeing a figure walking past one of the windows, she knocks and asks for help; no one answers, so Edie lets herself in. Suddenly, she sees flashes and hears noises that seem to be hallucinations, and the door locks behind her. After a wicked, disembodied voice harasses her, she frantically tries to escape the manor, until the front door unlocks on its own. A dreamy classmate named Mason, sent by the principal, escorts Edie to school, and sparks fly between them. But although Edie is free from the mansion, it later becomes clear that she’s also freed something else. During her first day of classes, Edie’s English instructor seemingly has a panic attack, and her male psychology instructor seems shamelessly enamored of her. She soon realizes that a spirit from the estate is influencing the people around her. But just as Edie begins to make this connection, the spirit shows himself as a handsome, well-groomed young man. It turns out that he attached himself to Edie as she left the mansion and has since been watching her every move. Thanks to this fact, he’s becoming stronger and more corporeal. As his infatuation grows, so does the potential danger facing Edie’s peers, including her darling Mason. The plot begins well, with the potential for compelling twists. However, it soon escalates into chaos, particularly as ghosts’ restrictions and limitations seem like afterthoughts. Certain spirits cannot communicate with others, for example, or are restricted to specific areas, which often comes off as more convenient than mysterious. Meanwhile, the narrative unnecessarily repeats some details, such as the fact that Edie is always cold. Such repetitions seem amateurish, as they hinder readers’ imaginations.
An occasionally endearing but largely unfocused YA ghost story.
Pub Date: April 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-1499285772
Page Count: 582
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
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