The engaging and unpredictable plot will sustain readers’ interest despite the uneven characterization.
A high school junior becomes entangled in a murder case after her friend’s boyfriend is found dead at the train station by her house.
Aspiring criminologist Sadie Morelli lives with her dad in the western New York state town of Hailing. After her parents split up and her mom left, her dad encouraged her to transfer to high school in nearby Arcadia, which has a better reputation. A fierce hockey rivalry exists between the schools. Kai, Sadie’s best friend Quinn’s boyfriend, plays for Arcadia, and he and his friends are part of Sadie’s social group. But reconnecting with Cason, a guy she knows from middle school who plays for Hailing, feels truly meaningful to Sadie, even though they have to keep their relationship secret. When Kai is killed and the police begin an investigation, it turns out many people are hiding things—but Sadie and Cason are the ones everyone suspects, and they’re desperate to clear their names. The narrative shifts among the first-person perspectives of Sadie and Cason, police interviews, text message exchanges, and transcripts from a true crime podcast, incrementally ratcheting up the tension and keeping readers on their toes. Sadie and Cason’s burgeoning romance is compelling enough but Sadie’s friendship with Quinn, who seems one-dimensionally self-involved and melodramatic, is less so; it’s hard to see why smart, straightforward Sadie is so dedicated to her. All main characters read white.
The engaging and unpredictable plot will sustain readers’ interest despite the uneven characterization. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781335013873
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Storytide/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
An entertaining and atmospheric, though sometimes clumsy, exploration of the true cost of beauty.
In this retelling of a classic, a drama student’s obsession with beauty leads her down a dark—and possibly deadly—path.
Eighteen-year-old Penny Paxton is beginning her first year at Dorian Drama Academy in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she hopes to follow in her starlet mother’s footsteps—and earn the love that her mother has never seemed to offer. At Dorian, Penny is mentored by Royal Shakespeare Company legend Orlagh Camran, who makes her the compelling offer of a portrait by the Masked Painter, a mysterious artist with the ability to gift his subjects everlasting youth and beauty. But shortly after Penny’s portrait is complete, several of the Masked Painter’s subjects are found murdered. Fearing that she’s made a terrible mistake and may become the next victim, Penny, who’s gay, begins to investigate the murders with the help of an unlikely ally. As she attempts to uncover the truth surrounding the Masked Painter and the murders, she’s forced to reckon with her own toxic obsession with beauty. This chilling, atmospheric novel, inspired by The Picture of Dorian Gray, is entertaining and full of twists, though some of the reveals feel contrived and some questions are left unanswered. The plot unravels at a leisurely pace but eventually builds to an action-packed (if somewhat convoluted) conclusion. Most characters are cued white.
An entertaining and atmospheric, though sometimes clumsy, exploration of the true cost of beauty. (content note, author’s note, bonus scene) (Fantasy thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9781250346797
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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