Better as a mystery than a coming-of-age tale but not even fully successful as that
A psychic 17-year-old learns to talk to the living, while an adult detective catches a serial killer in this sequel to Dead Connection (2006).
Murray’s only friends are the dead teenagers who talk to him at the cemetery and Pearl, the cemetery caretaker's daughter, who befriended him when she helped him use his ability to speak with the dead to solve a murder in the previous book. Pearl's father, Janochek, allows Murray to live in a cemetery shed since the boy's unwilling to live with his prostitute mother. But despite the friendship of Pearl and Janochek, Murray is introverted and shy. While Pearl angrily pushes him to further develop his psychic powers, Murray develops an attraction for a dead girl, a cute-as-a-button dancer he'd seen from a distance while she was alive. Meanwhile, Murray's old ally/antagonist, Deputy Gates, seeks clues about a rash of missing homeless people. Along with his fellow officers and a social-worker girlfriend, Deputy Gates does legwork worthy of a police procedural. In interwoven segments of choppy, fragmented prose conveyed in shifting points of view that give all the characters a similarly odd, adult voice, Deputy Gates, Murray, Pearl, and Janochek observe these two scarcely intersecting storylines. The sense of fragmentation is heightened by infodumps about social work, homelessness, domestic violence, and the criminal justice system. The resolution owes more to adult efforts than to Murray's powers.
Better as a mystery than a coming-of-age tale but not even fully successful as that . (Paranormal mystery. 15-18)Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-374-30227-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
Only marginally intriguing.
In a remote part of Utah, in a “temple of excellence,” the best of the best are recruited to nurture their talents.
Redemption Preparatory is a cross between the Vatican and a top-secret research facility: The school is rooted in Christian ideology (but very few students are Christian), Mass is compulsory, cameras capture everything, and “maintenance” workers carry Tasers. When talented poet Emma disappears, three students, distrusting of the school administration, launch their own investigation. Brilliant chemist Neesha believes Emma has run away to avoid taking the heat for the duo’s illegal drug enterprise. Her boyfriend, an athlete called Aiden, naturally wants to find her. Evan, a chess prodigy who relies on patterns and has difficulty processing social signals, believes he knows Emma better than anyone. While the school is an insidious character on its own and the big reveal is slightly psychologically disturbing, Evan’s positioning as a tragic hero with an uncertain fate—which is connected to his stalking of Emma (even before her disappearance)—is far more unsettling. The ’90s setting provides the backdrop for tongue-in-cheek technological references but doesn’t do anything for the plot. Student testimonials and voice-to-text transcripts punctuate the three-way third-person narration that alternates among Neesha, Evan, and Aiden. Emma, Aiden, and Evan are assumed to be white; Neesha is Indian. Students are from all over the world, including Asia and the Middle East.
Only marginally intriguing. (Mystery. 15-18)Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-266203-3
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Gruesomely violent with a disheartening take on the future.
A troubled teen in a zombie-infested landscape finds energy and purpose in killing.
Sixteen-year-old Quinn Wallace, surrendered by her adoptive parents at age 6 after just four years with them, is marking the time until she turns 18 and can leave the Pegasus Center, a residential treatment facility in Peoria, Illinois. She cynically chases the compliance points given for good behavior. Manipulative and in love with control, Quinn, who has ADHD (and, possibly, antisocial personality disorder), experiences “emotions differently than most people” and has had to learn to interpret others’ emotions; she gleans information about her fellow residents by secretly reading their charts. Reports of riots in Chicago feel remote until one day the chaos reaches their locked ward: A custodian reanimates following a violent death—she’s a carrier, someone infected with a “new and terrifying virus.” Quinn, 17-year-old Keisha, and a ragtag band from Pegasus flee the facility and head south. People underestimate petite, blond, pale-skinned, and sweet-faced Quinn, who’s protective of her Black-presenting crush, Keisha, who taught her how to turn on the charm and play people. First-person narrator Quinn feels “the warmth of excitement” when she kills. Many of her victims are one-note secondary characters whom she views as disposable. Salazar’s series opener, which was originally self-published in 2024 as The Dead Weight, explores mental health issues and neurodivergence in ways that unfortunately feel one-dimensional and offers little redemption for its protagonist.
Gruesomely violent with a disheartening take on the future. (Horror. 15-18)Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2026
ISBN: 9781464299292
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2026
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