Parents who grew up reading Goosebumps novels may enjoy reading this fun, if uneven, tale of food gone bad to their kids.
In Hunter’s middle-gradehorror-mystery novel, young amateur sleuths investigate the link between a slew of child abductions and a restaurant that serves terrible food.
Amberand her cousin and best friend, Mira, have returned from vacation to find their town of Fairfieldmuch changed. There are posters with missing children everywhere—many of attended the girls’ school. After Mira’s mother cautions them to remain hypervigilant, the girls visit a new pizza joint in town called Hot and Slicey; the visit serves multiple purposes, as Amber wants to be a chef when she grows up and Mira aspires to be a food critic. However, they immediately sense that something’s off about the place: It’s sweltering hot, the lighting is too dim, the waiter seems twitchy, and the pizza that Mira orders is almost inedible. Later, Mira posts a scathing review online, and shortly afterward, she’s abducted from her home. Amber vows to find her, and her search leads her back to the weird restaurant and its connection to a corporation that’s rumored to be turning humans into zombies with contaminated food. As Amber investigates, Mira tries to escape her subterranean prison. Overall, Hunter’s narrative is briskly paced, action packed, and filled with fun scares. However, it isn’t without its flaws. For example, there’s a conspicuous lack of description, particularly regarding the main characters; readers don’t even know their ages, which has the effect of making them seem a bit cardboard. Also, the author hints at a science-fictional element with a mention of “extraterrestrial sauce,” but this potentially entertaining idea is never fully explored or explained.
Parents who grew up reading Goosebumps novels may enjoy reading this fun, if uneven, tale of food gone bad to their kids.Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9781956694123
Page Count: 120
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: July 10, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.
In Florence’s middle-grade fantasy novel, a young girl’s heart is tested in the face of an evil, spreading Darkness.
Eleven-year-old Lydia, “freckle-cheeked and round-eyed, with hair the color of pine bark and fair skin,” is struggling with the knowledge that she has reached the age to apprentice as an herbalist. Lydia is reluctant to leave her beloved, magical Mulberry Glen and her cozy Housetree in the woods—she’ll miss Garder, the Glen’s respected philosopher; her fairy guardian Pit; her human friend Livy; and even the mischievous part-elf, part-imp, part-human twins Zale and Zamilla. But the twins go missing after hearing of a soul-sapping Darkness that has swallowed a forest and is creeping into minds and engulfing entire towns. They have secretly left to find a rare fruit that, it is said, will stop the Darkness if thrown into the heart of the mountain that rises out of the lethal forest. Lydia follows, determined to find the twins before they, too, fall victim to the Darkness. During her journey, accompanied by new friends, she gradually realizes that she herself has a dangerous role to play in the quest to stop the Darkness. In this well-crafted fantasy, Florence skillfully equates the physical manifestation of Darkness with the feelings of insecurity and powerlessness that Lydia first struggles with when thinking of leaving the Glen. Such negative thoughts grow more intrusive the closer she and her friends come to the Darkness—and to Lydia’s ultimate, powerfully rendered test of character, which leads to a satisfyingly realistic, not quite happily-ever-after ending. Highlights include a delightfully haunting, reality-shifting library and a deft sprinkling of Latin throughout the text; Pit’s pet name for Lydia is mea flosculus (“my little flower”). Fine-lined ink drawings introducing each chapter add a pleasing visual element to this well-grounded fairy tale.
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781956393095
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Waxwing Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Supernatural mystery meets generational drama with hopeful endings for all.
Eleven-year-old Frank must solve a supernatural mystery to save his new home.
As fifth grade comes to an end, Frank Fernández is looking forward to finally staying put in Alabama for a second year, as promised, after a childhood spent following his parents’ home renovation work all across the country. Frequent relocation has made Frank wary of forming friendships or making plans, but his hopes for more stability are temporarily dashed when his parents announce plans to renovate a lighthouse in the Florida Keys, near where his mother grew up and his father’s home country of Cuba. Papi promises this will be their last move, though: The lighthouse will be theirs. But from their first day on Spectacle Key, things seem to go wrong: Tensions rise between his parents, and Frank’s hopes of a forever home are under threat from seemingly supernatural forces. In order to put down roots, Frank and new ghostly friend Connie, a White girl with freckles, must discover what secrets the island is hiding, uncovering Frank’s own family roots along the way. Frank is a fan of horror—he names his new Great Dane puppy Mary Shelley. But though there is some mild peril to be found, rather than a ghostly thriller, this is an appealing, lightly spooky family drama with valuable lessons for those who would hide from a difficult past instead of confronting and healing generational trauma.
Supernatural mystery meets generational drama with hopeful endings for all. (Supernatural. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-313481-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
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