A gripping, if occasionally overstuffed, thriller.
Two sisters take a murder investigation into their own hands in this story set in small-town Indiana.
Roxie crafts wildly creative ghost-story tours for the public about Whistler’s local lore, many of them based on her own family’s history. Her embrace of all things macabre is a huge part of her style and identity. However, the grisly killing of her sister Skylar’s boyfriend, Colin, a year earlier hit too close to home for her and has destroyed Skylar, leaving the once-driven student ready to forfeit her spot at Yale and completely retreat from life. When new information spurs Skylar to look into his still unsolved case, Roxie throws her weight behind the effort, hoping it will help her sister turn a corner. Tristan, Roxie’s best friend, is also Colin’s half brother, and their long-standing potential to become more than friends, in addition to the secrets he’s keeping, complicates things. There is a lot packed into the plot, which can feel unwieldy at times, but the central mystery is unpredictable, carefully building tension to the end. Themes of family trauma are nicely balanced by the sisters’ adoring, tough Grandma Gertie. There is also some dissection of Roxie’s experience of feeling like a misfit and the pain it has caused her. All characters seem to be White.
A gripping, if occasionally overstuffed, thriller. (Thriller. 13-18)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0614-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A powerful story of family, belonging, and identity interlaced with thriller elements.
A wary teen wonders if she should run when people come looking for her.
Lucy Smith was raised by her white father, who said little about her mother. Following his death and her stepmother’s abandonment, Lucy entered the foster care system at 14. Her stepmother revealed that Lucy’s birth mom was Native American, but her social worker urged her to keep that quiet. Battered by her time in the foster care system, it’s no wonder that 18-year-old Lucy is cautious when she’s approached by a man who says he’s an attorney who helps Native American foster kids connect with their families and communities. He introduces her to a friend who reveals to Lucy that she knows her Ojibwe maternal relatives—but a wary Lucy refuses her offer to learn more. Someone is stalking her, after all, and the FBI is investigating the bomb that went off in the diner where she worked—an event she’s sure targeted her. This stand-alone from bestseller Boulley, who’s an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, includes characters her fans will recognize from previous works. The action scenes are mediated by ruminations on the failings of the foster care system and strong portrayals of Lucy’s relationship with her father and her complicated identity. Ardent book lover Lucy is a sympathetic narrator whose strong sense of justice is coupled with a deep acceptance of others.
A powerful story of family, belonging, and identity interlaced with thriller elements. (content warning, author’s note) (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781250328533
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
An exciting and bittersweet ending to a compelling duology.
The gang gets back together after the catastrophic events of A Tempest of Tea (2024).
Arthie Casimir and her brother, Jin, managed to uncover the real identity of—and steal a ledger with incriminating evidence about—the Ram, monarch of Ettenia, but their crew, a mix of vampires and humans, is irrevocably changed. The revelation of a secret leads to a rift between the siblings, the Ram is still in power, and now humans are going missing, with blame unjustly falling on the vampires. To take down the colonizer of her birth country, Arthie must get everyone to work together again, travel back to her homeland of Ceylan, and pull off her most daring heists yet. With chapters alternating among the perspectives of Arthie, Jin, and Felicity “Flick” Linden—a skilled forger and Jin’s love interest—this genre mashup set in an intricate fantasy world combines exciting action and adventure, heartfelt romance, and complex paranormal beings, all while feeling relevant to real-world issues. The trio of non-white leads face racial prejudice among other hardships in a society that constantly underestimates them. The plot takes a little while to really get started, but once the action amps up, there are plenty of tense and impassioned moments. The ending satisfyingly wraps up the main conflicts and is sure to evoke a strong emotional response from invested readers.
An exciting and bittersweet ending to a compelling duology. (map) (Fantasy. 13-18)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780374389420
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
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