Speculative, unsettling, and intensely emotional.
In 1980s Estonia, the grip of the USSR is beginning to loosen even as one girl’s attempt to save her sister exposes a dark reality.
Five years ago, in 1984, Viktoria made a horrible mistake—during a moment of distraction, she let her 5-year-old sister disappear in the bog behind their house, a place where such events are common. Now Anna has returned, but she hasn’t aged. She can’t explain where she’s been, and the bog seems to call her back. With the oracle cards she carries as a guide, 16-year-old Vik desperately tries to figure out what to do while navigating turmoil with her closest friend, Liis, and facing the hostile villagers, who turn on her family. Although the Estonians’ language and culture have survived decades of Soviet oppression—which is loosening—some people are more interested in assimilating with Russians. The influence of Vik’s maternal uncle Silver, who supports the Soviet way of thinking and runs the government asylum just outside of town, looms large. In this politically astute story filled with skillfully incorporated background information about a fascinating and complex historical period, Vik’s quest authentically and thoroughly incorporates her struggles with OCD and complex PTSD (which Griffis explains in a mental health note but aren’t diagnosed in-world). Liis has a limb difference, and Vik’s mother has PTSD, too. This gripping, deeply human, and eerie mystery has parallels to current events that will provoke readers to think.
Speculative, unsettling, and intensely emotional. (historical note) (Horror. 14-18)Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9780823459124
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
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
Lush, angsty, queer horror.
When the monsters they imagine come to life, two boys fight for their lives—and each other.
Andrew Perrault, who’s from Australia, writes beautiful, macabre fairy tales. His roommate at his American boarding school, Wickwood Academy, is talented artist Thomas Rye, who brings his stories to vivid life in paint and charcoal. Andrew’s twin sister, Dove, is all but ignoring him, so he has plenty of time to focus on Thomas’ increasingly odd behavior. Thomas’ parents disappeared just before the new school year started, and Andrew noticed blood on his roommate’s sleeve on their first day back. When he follows Thomas into the forest one night, Andrew discovers him fighting one of the monsters that Thomas has drawn from these stories. The boys soon find themselves coping with vicious bullies by day and fighting monsters by night. At the same time, Andrew struggles to reconcile his feelings for Thomas with his growing awareness of his own asexuality. But when the sinister Antler King breaches Wickwood’s walls, Andrew realizes that he and Thomas may not survive their own creations. This novel, written in rich, extravagant prose, features frank portrayals of disordered eating, self-harm, bullying, and mental illness. Andrew grapples realistically with his sexual identity, and the story has ample genuinely creepy moments with the monsters. Andrew, Thomas, and Dove are white.
Lush, angsty, queer horror. (content warning) (Horror. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2024
ISBN: 9781250895660
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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