A fresh-air alternative to claustrophobic dystopias.
Two teens thousands of miles apart discover they’re haunted by the same desperate ghost.
On a family visit to a Welsh seaside village, Londoner Gareth discovers the lonely, dead child when his cellphone falls into an ancient burial chamber; she returns it to him only after securing his promise to visit her. In California, Olwen’s great-grandmother, Gee Gee, expresses her dying wish to return to that same Welsh village, her hometown. Olwen—known as Wyn—senses that the beloved Gee Gee she thought she knew is a façade hiding a mystery, one tied to her own haunting. After Gareth finds Wyn’s blog, the teens meet online and realize that each has been contacted by a ghostly girl whose name Wyn bears and whose urgent need is draining them. Her voice and image turn up on Gareth’s phone; Wyn’s dreams are more complex, interwoven with Gee Gee, the child and a strange young man. When Wyn’s family brings Gee Gee to her village and Gareth arranges a visit to his great-grandfather there, the teens meet and—exhausted and disoriented by their intensifying visitations—struggle to solve the riddle and free themselves before Gee Gee’s life ends. Though a reluctance to put characters in harm’s way combines with excessive foreshadowing to rob the plot of suspense, there’s an old-fashioned charm to this gently meandering tale that can’t be denied.
A fresh-air alternative to claustrophobic dystopias. (Ghost story. 11-15)Pub Date: June 8, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7387-4058-4
Page Count: 360
Publisher: Flux
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli.
For two teenagers, a small town’s annual cautionary ritual becomes both a life- and a death-changing experience.
On the second Wednesday in June, every eighth grader in Amber Springs, Pennsylvania, gets a black shirt, the name and picture of a teen killed the previous year through reckless behavior—and the silent treatment from everyone in town. Like many of his classmates, shy, self-conscious Robbie “Worm” Tarnauer has been looking forward to Dead Wed as a day for cutting loose rather than sober reflection…until he finds himself talking to a strange girl or, as she would have it, “spectral maiden,” only he can see or touch. Becca Finch is as surprised and confused as Worm, only remembering losing control of her car on an icy slope that past Christmas Eve. But being (or having been, anyway) a more outgoing sort, she sees their encounter as a sign that she’s got a mission. What follows, in a long conversational ramble through town and beyond, is a day at once ordinary yet rich in discovery and self-discovery—not just for Worm, but for Becca too, with a climactic twist that leaves both ready, or readier, for whatever may come next. Spinelli shines at setting a tongue-in-cheek tone for a tale with serious underpinnings, and as in Stargirl (2000), readers will be swept into the relationship that develops between this adolescent odd couple. Characters follow a White default.
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli. (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-30667-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
A deliciously disturbing, twisted tale.
Teens endure fallout from a game of Bloody Mary.
Everybody’s done it at some point: You look in the mirror and repeat the name Bloody Mary. Sometimes, the legend says, you’ll see your true love. Sometimes they say you’ll see the ghost’s face, and it means you will die young. But these four fourth grade friends—Grace, Calvin, Elena, and Steph—didn’t count on their little game’s still affecting them five years later. They were just having some spooky fun in Elena’s deceased grandmother’s room, after all. But now, even after all these years have passed, each of them still sees a shape behind them whenever they look in a mirror. But the frights really begin when a new girl arrives at school. Her name is Mary. The author effectively and slowly ratchets the tension and dread, crafting some cleverly frightening sequences that fans of the genre will love. Less effective is the characterization: As each chapter pivots perspectives, some readers may have to double back and sort out which of the troubled teens they’re following. As the scares pile up and the descent into madness moves forward, the characterization gets a bit crisper, but the first few chapters may pose a bit of a hurdle. The novel’s conclusion is satisfactory, but the real highlights here are the spooky sequences. The teens are all presumed White.
A deliciously disturbing, twisted tale. (Horror. 12-15)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-67927-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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