A twisty, haunting, and satisfying contemporary gothic that will enthrall readers.
After her mother’s suicide, 16-year-old Ivy Bloodgood is packed off to the foreboding New England island of Darkhaven, where secrets and skeletons overflow the closets of her new home.
Ivy’s long-lost uncle Simon is welcoming even if housekeeper Mrs. MacLeod is anything but. After a hand-to-mouth life with her grifter mother, Ivy just wants to graduate and head to California. However, waking up the first night in a rambling, decaying mansion covered in what she hopes is animal blood is horrific, especially when she finds out that someone called Neil Ramsey was killed in the woods. The Bloodgoods and the less upstanding Ramseys—the only two families on the island—have a Hatfield and McCoy thing going on, so fraternizing with the youngest Ramsey, Doyle, is a no-no, which doesn’t stop Ivy. Ivy’s nightmares get bloodier, and she’s afraid she’s inherited the mental illness or rumored curse that seems to plague her family, but as she tries to unravel their fraught history, with Doyle’s help, she realizes something darker may be at work. Kittredge’s (Grim Tidings, 2016, etc.) dread-soaked tale invokes the best of Victorian gothics, and the brash, street-smart, and resilient Ivy ably keeps her wits about her even when the you-know-what hits the fan. All main characters are presumably white.
A twisty, haunting, and satisfying contemporary gothic that will enthrall readers. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: April 9, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-266562-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
A compelling romance inhabited by complex and appealing characters.
When star hockey player Alec Barczewski’s estranged childhood friend, Dani Collins, moves to town, they end up in a mutually beneficial fake-dating relationship that reignites old feelings.
Following her parents’ divorce, Dani and her mom move in with Dani’s hockey legend grandfather in Southview, Minnesota, where she spent a month every summer as a child and where her friendship with Alec grew. Between visits, the two were pen pals, but they eventually fell out of touch. Despite some tensions over their loss of friendship, the high school seniors reconnect. Desperate to get off Harvard’s waitlist, Dani needs another extracurricular activity, while Alec—whose reputation took a hit when a photo of him holding a bong appeared on social media—is eager to improve his tarnished image for NHL scouts. The pair strike a deal: They’ll fake date, making Alec look like a stable guy whose academically gifted girlfriend is related to hockey royalty, and in exchange, he’ll get Dani a team manager position that will catch the eye of Harvard’s admissions officers. Eventually, complicated feelings about their past, stressful family relationships, and their brewing romance boil over. Romance fans will love the deliciously tension-filled scenes between Alec and Dani, who are believable friends with heavy demands weighing on them. They feel like real teenagers, and readers will enjoy rooting for them as the well-paced story unfolds. Main characters present white.
A compelling romance inhabited by complex and appealing characters. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9781665921268
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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