A suspenseful and seriously fun thriller.
Parker offers an eerie supernatural mystery featuring a young woman struggling with grief, finding love, and encountering paranormal phenomena.
There’s something supernatural in the town of Seabrook, and 18-year-old Amy is soon to discover it. She’d desperate for sleep and solace after the death of her mother, but she accompanies her father on a visit to the oceanside town of Seabrook; he’s a detective for the state police who’s investigating a mysterious disappearance in the community. After a rash mistake with some medication nearly costs Amy her life, she finds her circumstances intertwined with those of handsome Ryan, who’s dealing with the loss of his own mother and baby sister. He’s also supporting his father in the aftermath of a stroke, undertaking the financial and emotional burden of running the family’s ranch. He and Amy form an immediate bond, finding love in the shadow of the town’s mysterious lighthouse. But the closer they become, the more intense the supernatural experiences that surround them, including lapses in time and seemingly impossible coincidences. Then Amy receives a startling message from her late mother, and soon, she finds herself unraveling a mystery about Ryan’s identity. This smart, suspenseful, and briskly paced work will keep readers guessing. Avid fans of supernatural mysteries may predict a few of the twists, but the cleverly crafted plot is sure to deliver some surprises nonetheless. Parker doesn’t solely focus on the mystery, however; he also offers plenty of heart, including messages about the enduring power of family and how love can conquer one’s fear of the unknown. There are plenty of spooky chills along the way, but Parker’s work is never gory or excessively violent, making it appropriate for teen audiences. The result is a haunting but hopeful work of supernatural fiction that comes to a satisfying conclusion.
A suspenseful and seriously fun thriller.Pub Date: Oct. 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-9951495-0-2
Page Count: 368
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Though it falters a bit under its own weight, this series still has plenty of fight left.
In this long-awaited fifth installment of Shannon’s Bone Season series, the threat to the clairvoyant community spreads like a plague across Europe.
After extending her fight against the Republic of Scion to Paris, Paige Mahoney, leader of London’s clairvoyant underworld and a spy for the resistance movement, finds herself further outside her comfort zone when she wakes up in a foreign place with no recollection of getting there. More disturbing than her last definitive memory, in which her ally-turned-lover Arcturus seems to betray her, is that her dreamscape—the very soul of her clairvoyance—has been altered, as if there’s a veil shrouding both her memories and abilities. Paige manages to escape and learns she’s been missing and presumed dead for six months. Even more shocking is that she’s somehow outside of Scion’s borders, in the free world where clairvoyants are accepted citizens. She gets in touch with other resistance fighters and journeys to Italy to reconnect with the Domino Programme intelligence network. In stark contrast to the potential of life in the free world is the reality that Scion continues to stretch its influence, with Norway recently falling and Italy a likely next target. Paige is enlisted to discover how Scion is bending free-world political leaders to its will, but before Paige can commit to her mission, she has her own mystery to solve: Where in the world is Arcturus? Paige’s loyalty to Arcturus is tested as she decides how much to trust in their connection and how much information to reveal to the Domino Programme about the Rephaite—the race of immortals from the Netherworld, Arcturus’ people—and their connection to the founding of Scion, as well as the presence of clairvoyant abilities on Earth. While the book is impressively multilayered, the matter-of-fact way in which details from the past are sprinkled throughout will have readers constantly flipping to the glossary. As the series’ scope and the implications of the war against Scion expand, Shannon’s narrative style reads more action-thriller than fantasy. Paige’s powers as a dreamwalker are rarely used here, but when clairvoyance is at play, the story shines.
Though it falters a bit under its own weight, this series still has plenty of fight left.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9781639733965
Page Count: 576
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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