A quick, freaky read.
A girl finds herself unwillingly connected to her classmate’s spiritual possession.
After Marin’s mother’s suicide—a source of survivor’s guilt—Marin started seeing people’s pain, manifesting as colorful lights and shapes revealing information about the nature of the malady. To avoid being overwhelmed, she’s purposefully aloof, wearing sunglasses indoors and always looking down. At a Mass at her Catholic school, a popular classmate shrieks at the holy host and has a classic Exorcist-style seizure before stopping directly in front of Marin with a message. Marin knows it has to do with the time Cassie invited her over, months ago, trapping Marin into helping with a ritual she desperately wants to forget. Not letting her forget is Cassie’s hot older brother, who has noticed his sister’s decline and wants to know its cause so he can help her. Despite her dislike for Cassie and her terror over the afternoon they shared, Marin’s feelings for Dominic—and compassion for Cassie’s suffering as he describes it—pulls her into their family’s supernatural horror. The classic possession is well-executed and decorated with some top-notch horror elements; readers who don’t love this sort of suspense will find refuge in the romantic and realistic familial (Marin’s new family dynamic and the siblings’ family drama) subplots. The quick pacing may cause occasional confusion but provides ample reason to keep reading to the end, which is sweeter than conventional for the genre.
A quick, freaky read. (Horror. 13 & up)Pub Date: April 28, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-37274-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2015
A sinister story about the vicious cycle of generational abuse that falters under the weight of an unwieldy plot.
A 17-year-old Nebraska girl’s desperate search for her roots takes her down a path more twisted than she could have imagined.
Margot Nielsen has lived her whole life under the thumb of her emotionally distant, manipulative mother and her strange set of rules. They have no connections to any family that Margot is aware of, but when a clue about their family history surfaces, Margot follows it. She finds the grandmother her mother never wanted her to know living on the family homestead in an economically depressed town where the Nielsen name seems to be shrouded in a cloud of suspicion that inspires trepidation among locals. Despite ominous foreshadowing, Margot still longs to find in her stoic grandmother, Vera, the love and connection that have been withheld from her. Their relationship is quickly complicated by a fire on the farm that results in the death of a girl with an uncanny physical resemblance to Margot—and whose existence her grandmother refuses to explain. Tension builds as the questions pile up, though the clues do not keep pace with the gaping concerns that readers are forced to grapple with. What could have been a tightly paced thriller suffers from pacing issues and plot holes along with thin character development and repetitive language. All major characters are white.
A sinister story about the vicious cycle of generational abuse that falters under the weight of an unwieldy plot. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: July 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-525-64562-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A disappointing attempt to breathe new life into a classic.
Three teen psychics attempt to uncover the supernatural mystery of Elias Thornfield and Fairfax Hall in this modern reimagining of Jane Eyre.
Jane Reye is utterly and effectively alone. Without anything—or anyone—in her life to keep her in Indiana, she accepts a job investigating the strange happenings at Fairfax Hall in Derbyshire, England. Jane is no stranger to the supernatural given her ability to use her art to see spirits. Alongside hunky telepath Giovanni and tarot reader Ingrid, Jane attempts to deal with the strange entity that Elias is desperate to be rid of. Her relationship with Elias continues to develop, and she soon realizes his entanglement with the malicious being is more complicated than he first let on. More truths are revealed even as time is running out, and as the stakes get more serious, Jane becomes willing to do anything to save Elias. Though the premise promises something new, the execution doesn’t deliver. The story starts slowly and never takes off, always seemingly at the precipice of action that just fizzles into the next plot point. The pop-culture one-liners seem intended to inject a humorous undertone, but they don’t ring true. Readers will long for deeper development of the relationships to make the closeness by the end feel earned. Characters are cued White.
A disappointing attempt to breathe new life into a classic. (Paranormal. 14-18)Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2023
ISBN: 9780593116081
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
