An engaging examination of the best and worst of humanity.
Catriona Cameron desires nothing more than an education, but she knows never to speak a wish aloud—for the fairies, ever listening, might choose to grant it “in the worst way possible.”
It’s 1885 in the Scottish Highlands, and 17-year-old Catriona’s patronizing brother, Hamish, wishes that she might attend school just so she’d fail miserably. Catriona is therefore wary of the mysterious stranger who arrives on their doorstep immediately after this utterance, bearing an invitation to the elite and newly coed Floodbane Academy. But the alternative is back-breaking work in the fields before her father marries her off to the local butcher at 18, so she accepts. The boys of Floodbane are determined to make life hell for the six newly arrived girls, and she’s physically assaulted after her first day of classes by young men who also taunt her with reckless wishes. Now she’s blessed with preternatural beauty and strength and cursed with an insatiable hunger for the blood of men who wrong women. Will she be able to regain her humanity? Does she even want to? This queer gothic horror novel grapples with overarching questions of misogyny, the right to education, structural inequality, and the freedom to be responsible for one’s own future. The characterization lacks depth, but the narration is viscerally evocative, and the plot and romance are compelling. Catriona’s father is white and mother has deep brown skin.
An engaging examination of the best and worst of humanity. (Horror. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2026
ISBN: 9798217117413
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 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
A high-concept premise that falls short in its execution.
A teenage girl finds herself alone after everyone else in her town mysteriously disappears, leaving her scrambling to figure out how to find them all.
One late summer day, everybody in July Fielding’s town disappears. She is left to piece together what happened, following a series of cryptic signs she finds around town urging her to “GET THEM BACK.” The narrative moves back and forth between July’s present and the events of the summer before, when her relationship with her best friend, cross-country team co-captain Sydney, starts to fracture due to a combination of jealousy over July’s new relationship with a cute boy called Sam and sweet up-and-coming freshman Ella’s threatening to overtake Syd’s status as star of the track team. The team members participate in a ritual in which they jump off a cliff into the rocky waters below at the end of their Friday practice runs. Though Ella is reluctant, Syd pressures her to jump. Short, frenetically paced sections move the story along quickly, and there is much foreshadowing pointing to something terrible that occurred at the end of that summer, which may be the key to July’s current predicament, but there is much misdirection too. Ultimately this is a story without enough setup to make the turn the book takes in the end feel fully developed or earned. All characters read white.
A high-concept premise that falls short in its execution. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9780593327173
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
