Thematically appealing and relevant, but the execution is muddled.
Queer teens get caught up in the fight between vampires and slayers.
When white-presenting trans girl Fawn’s best friend, Silver, fakes his suicide and becomes a vampire, she follows him across the country to Seattle. Even though Silver was dating someone else, Fawn loved him and doesn’t understand why he would just leave without her. In Seattle, Rachel, a queer white vampire slayer, finds her life and purpose completely upended when she’s turned into a vampire without her consent. Her mom is a leader among the vampire slayers, who kill without remorse, regardless of whether their vampire target feasts on willing or unwilling humans or is registered and drinks only their government-provided blood rations. Rachel tries to prove her allegiance to the slayers by acting as an informant and being a guinea pig for Daylight blood, a new synthetic product, but she starts to question everything she’s been taught. When Fawn’s and Rachel’s worlds intersect, they have to decide who they want to fight for. While there’s compelling complexity to the queer and trans characters and themes, which Schrieve explores both head-on as well as allegorically, and the vampire lore is unique and intriguing, the story as a whole is overstuffed and unfocused. Fawn’s and Rachel’s alternating narrative voices sometimes sound too similar, and the large, diverse cast of secondary characters and many plot threads slow the pace.
Thematically appealing and relevant, but the execution is muddled. (Paranormal. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781644214701
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Triangle Square Books for Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 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
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in.
Black is back with another dark tale of Faerie, this one set in Faerie and launching a new trilogy.
Jude—broken, rebuilt, fueled by anger and a sense of powerlessness—has never recovered from watching her adoptive Faerie father murder her parents. Human Jude (whose brown hair curls and whose skin color is never described) both hates and loves Madoc, whose murderous nature is true to his Faerie self and who in his way loves her. Brought up among the Gentry, Jude has never felt at ease, but after a decade, Faerie has become her home despite the constant peril. Black’s latest looks at nature and nurture and spins a tale of court intrigue, bloodshed, and a truly messed-up relationship that might be the saving of Jude and the titular prince, who, like Jude, has been shaped by the cruelties of others. Fierce and observant Jude is utterly unaware of the currents that swirl around her. She fights, plots, even murders enemies, but she must also navigate her relationship with her complex family (human, Faerie, and mixed). This is a heady blend of Faerie lore, high fantasy, and high school drama, dripping with description that brings the dangerous but tempting world of Faerie to life.
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in. (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-31027-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017
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