Illuminating, riveting, and entertaining: a fantastic foray into a ghost hunter’s worst nightmare.
A queer ghost hunter is on the hunt not just for a ghost but a murderer.
Everyone expects Melody Myere to be as talented a ghost hunter as her parents are. But when she fails her First Sacred Hunt following an unfortunate confrontation with a wraith, she brings shame to her family. Hoping for a fresh start, her parents take an assignment on Murkmore, a dump of an island where two adult men and three high school boys have “turned up as mutilated, ectoplasm-covered corpses.” While her parents focus on their task, Melody, who’s white, is determined to prove—to herself as well as everyone else—that she’s a worthy ghost hunter. What Melody doesn’t anticipate is meeting Cyrus Paredes-Pantazis, a butch violinist of Greek and Ecuadorian descent who doesn’t know that she’s a ghost. An unlikely romance develops between the two as Melody tries to find out how Cyrus died. There’s a dangerous connection between the two teens because Cyrus is slowly deteriorating, and she’s a ghost whom Melody should be capturing, not canoodling with. Melody is also proving to be a skilled detective; the closer she gets to the truth, the more imperiled she becomes. The narrative is filled with surprises, as well as further insights into the complexities of ghost culture.
Illuminating, riveting, and entertaining: a fantastic foray into a ghost hunter’s worst nightmare. (content warning, glossary) (Paranormal mystery. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781915585196
Page Count: 286
Publisher: Tiny Ghost Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter.
After a Nigerian British girl goes off to an exclusive boarding school that seems to prey on less-privileged students, she discovers there might be some truth behind an urban legend.
Ife Adebola joins the Urban Achievers scholarship program at pricey, high-pressure Nithercott School, arriving shortly after a student called Leon mysteriously disappeared. Gossip says he’s a victim of the glowing-eyed Changing Man who targets the lonely, leaving them changed. Ife doesn’t believe in the myth, but amid the stresses of Nithercott’s competitive, privileged, majority-white environment, where she is constantly reminded of her state school background, she does miss her friends and family. When Malika, a fellow Black scholarship student, disappears and then returns, acting strangely devoid of personality, Ife worries the Changing Man is real—and that she’s next. Ife joins forces with classmate Bijal and Benny, Leon’s younger brother, to uncover the truth about who the Changing Man is and what he wants. Culminating in a detailed, gory, and extended climactic battle, this verbose thriller tempts readers with a nefarious mystery involving racial and class-based violence but never quite lives up to its potential and peters out thematically by its explosive finale. However, this debut offers highly visually evocative and eerie descriptions of characters and events and will appeal to fans of creature horror, social commentary, and dark academia.
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781250868138
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
A gripping tribute to resilience.
A girl with amnesia and a boy suspected of harming his girlfriend overcome adversity to find the answers they seek.
A 17-year-old girl wakes up in a ditch, disoriented and with no memory of who she is or what happened. Found by the Alton, Oregon, police, she is brought to the station. Soon after, Wayne Boone, a man claiming to be her father, shows up. He has photos of her on his phone and her high school ID card, with the name Mary Boone. Wayne convinces the police to release Mary into his custody. The more time Mary spends with Wayne, however, the weirder things get: He’s unaware of her food allergy, and as her memories start to return, they don’t conform with Wayne’s versions of her life. In the town of Washington City, across the Willamette River, Drew is in a bad place. His girlfriend, Lola, has disappeared, and Drew was the last person to see her. His adoptive dads and cousin are the only ones who support him; everyone else, including the sheriff, thinks he’s responsible for Lola’s disappearance. Intent on finding Lola, Drew finds help in an unlikely ally, Lola’s best friend, Autumn, who is the sheriff’s daughter. But will they find Lola in time? The two immersive storylines bring to life the trials and frustrations each main character faces in this debut, which is a thrilling delight right up to the unexpected and bittersweet conclusion. Most characters are cued white; one of Drew’s dads is Guatemalan.
A gripping tribute to resilience. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781728270111
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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