Captures a time as well as a place: intelligent and thought-provoking.
A literary take on film noir during Hollywood’s golden age.
It’s 1946. While young men were off to war, 17-year-old Clara Berg landed a job as vault runner at major filmmaker Silver Pacific studios. After spending a year taking film reels to and from the locked, fireproof archive, Clara, who loves the film industry, has landed a promotion to apprentice editor. While tidying up after a plan to meet for drinks with her screenwriter and war veteran friend, Gil, falls through, she finds Barbara Bannon, controversial star of the current production, dead in the vault. The next day she learns that it was actually Barbara’s stand-in, Connie Milligan, who was killed. The police believe Bannon was the intended target, but Clara feels otherwise, especially as she begins to remember disturbing fragments from her own childhood in Nazi Germany. Ross’ novel brings working life on a movie set vividly to life. Clara’s investigations rely a bit too much on coincidence, and the final peril ends with a fizzle, but overall, the mystery keeps readers guessing. Side plots involve antisemitism in America and Germany, American isolationism, the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League, and Leni Riefenstahl (a woman known as Hitler’s girlfriend and filmmaker who really did travel to California in 1938 in an unsuccessful attempt to sell her works to the American market). All named characters are White.
Captures a time as well as a place: intelligent and thought-provoking. (author's note, glossary, filmography) (Historical mystery. 12-18)Pub Date: July 27, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-385-74148-4
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
A suspenseful story that starts off with great promise but fails to deliver.
A teenage girl struggles with the question of whom to trust in the age of social media exposure.
Thanks to Connie’s mom’s family vlog, her life is anything but private. She enjoyed it at first, but now, between the mean comments online and the cruel mockery from peers in real life, Connie feels like she’s in a prison. Her sister, Isla, says it’s worth it for the money, but Connie isn’t sure if that’s really true. Connie’s anger over Mom’s refusal to heed warnings that revealing so much puts them in danger continues to build. When she’s left alone for two weeks while Mom and Isla go on a college road trip, local girls start dying, and a fan reaches out on social media in an unsettling way, leaving Connie worried about her safety. White-presenting Connie’s sense of humor is charming, and her insights will earn readers’ sympathy as the tension builds. As emotions rise, Preston’s poetic language beautifully captures Connie’s feelings about her mom’s obsession with social media and her confusion about who is worthy of her trust. The topics of safety and the uncharted waters of social media are skillfully woven into the plot. However, some inconsistencies weaken the overall story: Apart from Connie, the characters are too lightly developed, and some plot points don’t align with earlier events and motivations, making the ultimate revelation a disappointment.
A suspenseful story that starts off with great promise but fails to deliver. (Thriller. 12-18)Pub Date: Dec. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9798217028009
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
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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