A good idea with promising characters scuttled by too many pages.
Something mysterious lurks within the Oklahoma woods.
Maine resident Chrystal has been planning on summering at the lake with her friends or visiting New York City with her mom and stepfather—anything but indulging her amateur cryptozoologist father’s Bigfoot obsession. But after a bloody incident occurs in Cherokee County, Oklahoma, Chrystal is packed off with her dad and finds herself heading toward the dark woods to investigate. Once there, Chrystal meets Logan, the cute farm boy who witnessed the attack. The presumably white teens grow close as they investigate the monster and the attacks increase in number and bloodshed. Presenting chapters narrated from Logan’s and Chrystal’s perspectives, the authors create engaging teen protagonists and a solidly structured mythology for the monster. There’s a promising start with some good character development and smartly constructed scares. The problem here is a lack of judicious editing: At about 350 pages, the horror story’s atmosphere and spookiness slip away, leaving long patches where information is repeated, and the characters aren’t given enough opportunity for further exploration. There just isn’t enough meat on the bone to justify this length. The monster’s terrorizing presence is blunted over time, and readers who are trying to figure out the who and why of this mystery will be plenty disappointed.
A good idea with promising characters scuttled by too many pages. (Thriller. 12-17)Pub Date: July 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-7653-3655-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor Teen
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
An atmospheric and entertaining thriller perfect for snowy night chills.
A group of teens stranded in a snowstorm discovers a murderer in their midst.
While traveling on the highway to a state theater competition, Nell and her friends Min, Raven, Adam, and Jermaine are caught in a dangerous blizzard. Their teacher, Mrs. McElroy, who is driving the minivan, decides to stop for the night at the run-down and shady-looking Travel Inn and Out. The motel is labyrinthine and spooky, with dingy corridors and walls adorned with moldering kitsch. Nell and the gang meet another group of kids who are also stranded by the storm, making fast friends. A game of Two Truths and a Lie starts out flirty and fun but devolves into something more sinister when one slip of paper reads “I like to watch people die,” and “I’ve lost count of how many people I’ve killed.” The snow falls and the winds howl, and soon power and cell service are lost, cutting off the motel patrons from the outside world. As the first victim is discovered and the body count begins to grow, the terror becomes palpable. Everyone at the motel seems to have an insidious secret: Will Nell be able to uncover the killer before they strike again? An homage to Agatha Christie, Henry’s locked-room mystery is tautly plotted, with quick-moving nail-biting chapters, relatable characters, and a deftly wrought setting that paradoxically manages to feel both claustrophobic and sprawling. Nell is White; there is diversity among the secondary characters.
An atmospheric and entertaining thriller perfect for snowy night chills. (Mystery. 12-16)Pub Date: May 24, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-316-32333-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli.
For two teenagers, a small town’s annual cautionary ritual becomes both a life- and a death-changing experience.
On the second Wednesday in June, every eighth grader in Amber Springs, Pennsylvania, gets a black shirt, the name and picture of a teen killed the previous year through reckless behavior—and the silent treatment from everyone in town. Like many of his classmates, shy, self-conscious Robbie “Worm” Tarnauer has been looking forward to Dead Wed as a day for cutting loose rather than sober reflection…until he finds himself talking to a strange girl or, as she would have it, “spectral maiden,” only he can see or touch. Becca Finch is as surprised and confused as Worm, only remembering losing control of her car on an icy slope that past Christmas Eve. But being (or having been, anyway) a more outgoing sort, she sees their encounter as a sign that she’s got a mission. What follows, in a long conversational ramble through town and beyond, is a day at once ordinary yet rich in discovery and self-discovery—not just for Worm, but for Becca too, with a climactic twist that leaves both ready, or readier, for whatever may come next. Spinelli shines at setting a tongue-in-cheek tone for a tale with serious underpinnings, and as in Stargirl (2000), readers will be swept into the relationship that develops between this adolescent odd couple. Characters follow a White default.
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli. (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-30667-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
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