Unforgettable characters drive this grim but riveting paranormal thriller.
In Quinton’s YA sequel, a teenager with supernatural abilities helps to search for missing children and confronts a formidable evil.
It’s 1963, and an internship at a New Orleans newspaper offers Del Larouche a chance to live what she sees as a normal life. However, the 18-year-old is extraordinary in at least one way: She has undeniable skill at trancing, which involves accessing a dreamlike world where she can see spirits and other supernatural phenomena. Although she considers this a “curse,” she has a warmhearted mentor in Mama Dedé, who originally taught her how to wield her powers. Del’s supernatural abilities may also help Frank Morgan, a retired NOPD detective who occasionally works cases for the department unofficially. His latest involves three missing kids, each apparently taken from a different orphanage within the last two weeks. There’s no physical evidence, but Del uses her trancing ability and stumbles onto a viable suspect. However, the culprit has powers, as well, and won’t be easy to catch. As Del grows more powerful, Mama Dedé becomes convinced that the longer and deeper the teen’s trances are, the more danger she faces. Quinton’s well-developed cast grounds and energizes this supernatural tale. Del, for example, has an unconventional family; she lives with Mama Dedé, a benefactor named Armand Baptiste, and an intellectually disabled boy, Jimmy, whom she knows from her own time at an orphanage; one of the missing girls disappeared from where Del and Jimmy once stayed. The story moves along at an impressive pace, alternating third-person narrative perspectives and picking up even steam as the threats increase. Myriad scenes of trancing deliver fascinating, sometimes frightening, otherworldly experiences, as when Del cringes at an eerie mix of human and nonhuman screams. The final act suggests a path for a third installment, but it’s Del and her allies that will have readers coming back for a sequel.
Unforgettable characters drive this grim but riveting paranormal thriller.Pub Date: Feb. 13, 2021
ISBN: 9781736659007
Page Count: 444
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A powerful story of family, belonging, and identity interlaced with thriller elements.
A wary teen wonders if she should run when people come looking for her.
Lucy Smith was raised by her white father, who said little about her mother. Following his death and her stepmother’s abandonment, Lucy entered the foster care system at 14. Her stepmother revealed that Lucy’s birth mom was Native American, but her social worker urged her to keep that quiet. Battered by her time in the foster care system, it’s no wonder that 18-year-old Lucy is cautious when she’s approached by a man who says he’s an attorney who helps Native American foster kids connect with their families and communities. He introduces her to a friend who reveals to Lucy that she knows her Ojibwe maternal relatives—but a wary Lucy refuses her offer to learn more. Someone is stalking her, after all, and the FBI is investigating the bomb that went off in the diner where she worked—an event she’s sure targeted her. This stand-alone from bestseller Boulley, who’s an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, includes characters her fans will recognize from previous works. The action scenes are mediated by ruminations on the failings of the foster care system and strong portrayals of Lucy’s relationship with her father and her complicated identity. Ardent book lover Lucy is a sympathetic narrator whose strong sense of justice is coupled with a deep acceptance of others.
A powerful story of family, belonging, and identity interlaced with thriller elements. (content warning, author’s note) (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781250328533
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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