A superfast, sturdy-enough creep show.
A group of teens tries to survive a spooky night.
Mexican-American teenager Mateo is excited to cruise the long and windy Pacific Coast Highway with his three school buddies in the jeep he fixed from the ground up. Mateo’s ready to kick the dust of his small town off his shoes, get his immigrant parents off his back, and head to Cal Poly University to become an automotive engineer. In the meantime, Mateo and his pals plan on spending this particular night away from their phones and on the open road enjoying the evening’s blood moon. Legend tells of spirits that spend the blood moon interfering with the living, and it doesn’t take long for Mateo and his friends to encounter some spooky doings of their own. The author crafts a solid-enough little ghost story, leaning on propulsive action and simple characterization (only Mateo approaches three dimensions) to build up to the big scares. The enterprise reads like a Goosebumps book for teenagers. The novel’s greatest strength is its mercenary pacing, getting in and out with a lesson learned and scares enjoyed before readers get remotely restless. Readers fond of sophisticated horror should look elsewhere, but those with little time or who are just dipping their toes into tales of things that go bump in the night will find enough to satisfy here. Series companions Dark Star, Graffiti, and The Witching Hour publish simultaneously.
A superfast, sturdy-enough creep show. (Horror. 10-14)Pub Date: April 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5124-3102-5
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Darby Creek
Review Posted Online: Jan. 31, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
Not much forward momentum but a tasty array of chills, thrills, and chortles.
The victory of Jacob and his fellow peculiars over the previous episode’s wights and hollowgasts turns out to be only one move in a larger game as Riggs (Tales of the Peculiar, 2016, etc.) shifts the scene to America.
Reading largely as a setup for a new (if not exactly original) story arc, the tale commences just after Jacob’s timely rescue from his decidedly hostile parents. Following aimless visits back to newly liberated Devil’s Acre and perfunctory normalling lessons for his magically talented friends, Jacob eventually sets out on a road trip to find and recruit Noor, a powerful but imperiled young peculiar of Asian Indian ancestry. Along the way he encounters a semilawless patchwork of peculiar gangs, syndicates, and isolated small communities—many at loggerheads, some in the midst of negotiating a tentative alliance with the Ymbryne Council, but all threatened by the shadowy Organization. The by-now-tangled skein of rivalries, romantic troubles, and family issues continues to ravel amid bursts of savage violence and low comedy (“I had never seen an invisible person throw up before,” Jacob writes, “and it was something I won’t soon forget”). A fresh set of found snapshots serves, as before, to add an eldritch atmosphere to each set of incidents. The cast defaults to white but includes several people of color with active roles.
Not much forward momentum but a tasty array of chills, thrills, and chortles. (Horror/Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7352-3214-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Mackie's nauseated by the scent of blood, is burned by cold iron and would die if he entered a church. None of this helps him avoid notice in his hometown, where close-mouthed neighbors hang horseshoes and leave milk in the garden. No quaint old-world superstitions, these; in the town of Gentry, a child dies mysteriously every seven years. Mackie's been raised to avoid notice, so nobody will recognize him for the changeling his parents and adoring sister know him to be. But with another baby apparently dead and blood and iron all over town, Mackie's having a hard enough time staying upright, let alone under the radar. Soon the sickly boy meets the Morrigan and her court: a mishmash of Celtic mythology with British folklore, elfpunk music and adorable Tim Burton–esque horrors. There's romance and rescue (though mercifully no Edward Cullen types to replace the tale's endearing original couple). Some of the urban-fantasy elements get dropped in the crowd partway through, but enough grotesque goodies remain to keep this a fast-paced, dark delicacy. (Urban fantasy. 12-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-59514-337-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2010
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