A campy and entertaining page-turner.
Fifty years after terrorizing the lonely and recently single, a serial killer has returned—and he’s targeting queer students at an Arizona high school.
White, femme Dearie and Latine jock hottie Cole are gay besties and seniors at Stone Grove High, where everyone is talking about Mr. Sandman, the subject of America’s No. 1 streaming show. When the school’s Queer Club members start receiving text messages from the Sandman saying they’re next, and they and others wind up murdered all over town, Cole and Dearie are framed for the killings. They’re already controversial among their peers, accused by some of “destroying the queer community” with their sexually free behavior as well as confusing people with their best-friendship that includes overt physical affection and occasional hookups. The book is told from the alternating perspectives of Cole and Dearie as they navigate emotional manipulation from an abuser while trying to figure out who is behind a new round of gruesome murders. They fight to clear their names while still looking smart, finding love, and grappling with the built-up traumas of racism, bullying, and more. To catch this killer, the club members will have to stick together to stay safe through the power of queer solidarity. This suspenseful slasher with a diverse, well-developed LGBTQ+ ensemble cast is also a catty, comedic celebration of queer community and identity.
A campy and entertaining page-turner. (author’s note) (Slasher. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9780593526583
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 25, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A high-concept premise that falls short in its execution.
A teenage girl finds herself alone after everyone else in her town mysteriously disappears, leaving her scrambling to figure out how to find them all.
One late summer day, everybody in July Fielding’s town disappears. She is left to piece together what happened, following a series of cryptic signs she finds around town urging her to “GET THEM BACK.” The narrative moves back and forth between July’s present and the events of the summer before, when her relationship with her best friend, cross-country team co-captain Sydney, starts to fracture due to a combination of jealousy over July’s new relationship with a cute boy called Sam and sweet up-and-coming freshman Ella’s threatening to overtake Syd’s status as star of the track team. The team members participate in a ritual in which they jump off a cliff into the rocky waters below at the end of their Friday practice runs. Though Ella is reluctant, Syd pressures her to jump. Short, frenetically paced sections move the story along quickly, and there is much foreshadowing pointing to something terrible that occurred at the end of that summer, which may be the key to July’s current predicament, but there is much misdirection too. Ultimately this is a story without enough setup to make the turn the book takes in the end feel fully developed or earned. All characters read white.
A high-concept premise that falls short in its execution. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9780593327173
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
A dark and gripping feminist tale.
A young woman faces her past to discover the truth about one of her nation’s heroes.
When Effy Sayre, the only female architecture student at her university in Llyr, wins the competition to design Hiraeth Manor for the estate of the late Emrys Myrddin, national literary figure and her favorite author, it is the perfect opportunity to leave behind a recent trauma. She arrives to find the cliffside estate is literally crumbling into the ocean, and she quickly realizes things may not be as they seem. Preston, an arrogant literature student, is also working at the estate, gathering materials for the university’s archives and questioning everything Effy knows about Myrddin. When Preston offers to include her name on his thesis—which may allow her to pursue the dream of studying literature that was frustrated by the university’s refusal to admit women literature students—Effy agrees to help him. He’s on a quest for answers about the source of Myrddin’s most famous work, Angharad, a romance about a cruel Fairy King who marries a mortal woman. Meanwhile, Myrddin’s son has secrets of his own. Preston and Effy start to suspect that Myrddin’s fairy tales may hold more truth than they realize. The Welsh-inspired setting is impressively atmospheric, and while some of the mythology ends up feeling extraneous, the worldbuilding is immersive and thoughtfully addresses misogyny and its effects on how history is written. Main characters are cued white.
A dark and gripping feminist tale. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9780063211506
Page Count: 384
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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