ETERNITY

An overall satisfying conclusion to a tale that imagines the Furies as three beautiful but terrifying supernatural sisters who thrive on vengeance against teens who they feel have done wrong.

The fictional town of Ascension, Maine, is the backdrop for this modern reworking of Greek mythology. It offers up plenty of tried-and-true horror hallmarks—an eerie, seemingly sentient doll and a babbling crazy girl smearing on uneven lipstick among them. Readers will need to have read the earlier installments of the series, as this picks up right where Envy (2012) left off, with protagonist Em struggling both against her own seeming transformation into something evil and between two guys—a hard-drinking stereotypical bad boy but sensitive musician named Crow and her childhood best friend and literal boy next door, JD. Those looking for atmospheric and enjoyably spooky thrills will find plenty to like, but it seems to take JD in particular an awfully long time to work out what’s really going on. However, the pacing does eventually pick up in the novel’s final chapters, and fans of the first two will be certain to devour this.

Fun to be sure, but also a case where shorter might have been sweeter—and more suspenseful.