A ripping tale that ends up missing the mark.
Queer teenagers unleash literal and metaphorical demons.
In 1991, Zachary “Zooey” Orson Jr. leaves his fancy Upper East Side high school after a scandal involving a teacher and is starting his sophomore year at an even fancier all-boys boarding school in Adders Lair, Massachusetts. He’s immediately targeted by both the school bully and the Vicious Circle, a well-established secret society of gay and bi students. Little does Zooey know that several VC members—campy queen Leo; his athlete boyfriend, Daniel; and Steven, who reads like a stereotype of an autistic person—have stolen a grimoire from the headmaster’s desk and used it to make their lives a little easier. Homophobia and supernatural events collide, but after a delightfully intriguing first third, the story veers toward the sentimental. While an ancient evil force named Frateroth threatens the world via conspiracy tropes that, through referencing Hebrew and the control of banking, unfortunately evoke antisemitic stereotypes, the plot becomes bogged down with an overt desire to teach important lessons about history (ACT UP, Stonewall), racism (Zooey is White and Korean and passes as White; Daniel is Black), biphobia, and other topics through plot points that feel shoehorned-in and anachronistic flights of exposition. Teen readers with a taste for horror will have fun and they might learn something, but the two elements form an awkward whole.
A ripping tale that ends up missing the mark. (author’s note) (Horror. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-4197-5470-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
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
A taut yet winding mystery that will keep readers guessing.
In this thriller, a flyer on the cheer team at her small-town Texas high school is dragged back into the awful events that claimed her best friend and her boyfriend.
Senior Iris Henley was horrified when her boyfriend, Rocky Koenig, and her former best friend, Lynette Zeiger, were found dead in a presumed murder-suicide the previous school year. She and Lynette, whose drug use was spiraling out of control, had already fallen out, but Iris had no idea Rocky was cheating on her with Lynette. But when anonymous social media posts claim that Iris herself is responsible for their deaths, her life becomes a nightmare of accusations and betrayal. Employing first-person, present-tense narration that feels immediate and anxious, this mystery builds steadily over the course of 25 days during which Iris feels increasingly desperate and unsure whom she can trust. Her troubled relationships with her friends and family are multidimensional and render her a sympathetic and likable narrator, who worries about her own reliability as she was drunk and high the night of the deaths. In particular, a subplot involving Iris’ growing understanding of her younger sister, Noelle, lends emotional depth to this whodunit. The central cast is white, and surnames suggest that some members of the supporting cast are Latine, including Iris’ best friend.
A taut yet winding mystery that will keep readers guessing. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2026
ISBN: 9781250323835
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
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