Pandering to audiences that relish historical fiction slathered with filth and suffering, Welsh pits an orphaned beggar lad with a shattered leg and some martial-arts training against a pair of genial body snatchers in the employ of a prominent doctor who likes to molest girls and infect kidnapped children with cholera in the name of scientific discovery. The setting is, unsurprisingly, that open running sewer (now) known as Dickensian London, to which young Victor comes inside a coffin he is sharing with a deliquescent occupant. Anything that good being worth repeating, he does the same later on, hiding out after witnessing the clinical dissection of his best friend’s diseased, mutilated corpse. Though against all odds, things are looking up in the end for Victor and the blind beggar with whom he falls in love, Welsh plays this lurid stomach-churner, which he loosely bases on historical events, strictly for shock value, leaving the stage strewn with corpses and gruesome relics. Steer readers with even an ounce of squeamishness (or, for that matter, self respect) to Kathleen Karr’s similarly themed but less graphic Skullduggery (2000). (Historical fiction. YA)
Pub Date: April 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-525-47699-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2007
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
Sun-loving Bella meets her demon lover in a vampire tale strongly reminiscent of Robin McKinley’s Sunshine. When Bella moves to rainy Forks, Wash., to live with her father, she just wants to fit in without drawing any attention. Unfortunately, she’s drawn the eye of aloof, gorgeous and wealthy classmate Edward. His behavior toward Bella wavers wildly between apparent distaste and seductive flirtation. Bella learns Edward’s appalling (and appealing) secret: He and his family are vampires. Though Edward nobly warns Bella away, she ignores the human boys who court her and chooses her vampiric suitor. An all-vampire baseball game in a late-night thunderstorm—an amusing gothic take on American family togetherness that balances some of the tale’s romantic excesses—draws Bella and her loved ones into terrible danger. This is far from perfect: Edward’s portrayal as monstrous tragic hero is overly Byronic, and Bella’s appeal is based on magic rather than character. Nonetheless, the portrayal of dangerous lovers hits the spot; fans of dark romance will find it hard to resist. (Fantasy. YA)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-316-16017-2
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2005
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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