Deadly secrets, sinister lore, fractured families, and an elite prep school: a decent recipe for entertainment
In the wake of her best friends’ suicides, a high school student uncovers disturbing truths about her elite prep school.
Charlotte is an average high school senior. She has average looks and earns average grades, no matter how hard she studies. If it wasn’t for her mother, a renowned and well-connected medical researcher, Charlotte would’ve been kicked out of prestigious Weston Preparatory Institute, where the students are all exceptionally gifted. Charlotte’s beautiful and daring best friends, Ariel and Devon, made life bearable for her at Weston. (Ariel and Charlotte are white; Devon is black.) The unlikely bond among three girls who “forgot we had mothers” became something more than friendship. They became a family. But when Ariel and Devon commit suicide a month apart, Charlotte’s search for answers leads her to a dangerous discovery that puts her life and the lives of others in jeopardy. Just as Charlotte played second fiddle to her two best friends before their deaths, her character just isn’t as compellingly written as those of Ariel and Devon. The book’s other characters are similarly bland or don’t get enough scene time for readers to really connect with them. This means the most interesting characters appear only in flashbacks and reminiscences. Nevertheless, plot twists and well-crafted intrigue will keep pages turning until the end.
Deadly secrets, sinister lore, fractured families, and an elite prep school: a decent recipe for entertainment . (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: June 6, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-61963-740-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
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
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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