Newly rich Shelby doesn’t like her stepmother, and the feeling is mutual. Still, it’s a shock when Priscilla convinces Shelby’s dad to pack her off to brat camp for the summer. After all, all Shelby’s been doing is skipping curfew and illicitly hooking up with boys! At least Shelby gets the pick of which teen-retraining camp will imprison her for the next couple of months, so she can spend the summer in the Pacific Northwest instead of at a boot camp in the Utah desert. And honestly, camp isn’t so bad, if you ignore all of the guitar-playing, touchy-feely psychoanalysis. But better than all the rock climbing and archery is sexy Austin Bridges, son of a bad-boy rock star and secret werewolf. If Shelby doesn’t help Austin out, his family secret will be exposed—but if she does help him, she might find herself exiled to that Utah boot camp. What’s a girl courted by an amber-eyed hottie to do? Neither original nor well-developed, but fans of paranormal romance will enjoy this sweet debut. (Fantasy. 11-13)
Pub Date: June 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-06-134923-2
Page Count: 224
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers seeking lots of up-close encounters with the unquiet dead and other creepy entities need look no further. Seventh son of a seventh son, and left-handed to boot, young Tom seems a natural to succeed Mr. Gregory, the aging “Spook” charged with keeping the County’s many ghasts, ghosts, boggarts and witches in check. He’s in for a series of shocks, though, as the job turns out to be considerably tougher and lonelier than he expects. Struggling to absorb Gregory’s terse teachings and vague warnings, Tom is immediately cast up against a host of terrifying adversaries—most notably Mother Malkin, an old and very powerful witch, and her descendant Alice, a clever young witch-in-training who is capable of outwitting him at every turn, but may or may not have yet gone completely to the bad. An appendix of supposed pages reproduced from Tom’s notebook adds little to information already supplied, but along with somber images at the chapter heads, does add atmospheric visual notes. By the end, though Mother Malkin has come to a suitably horrific end, there are tantalizing hints that the Dark Is Rising. Stay tuned. (Fantasy. 11-13)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-076618-2
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2005
IN THE NEWS
In this subtly offbeat fantasy, a conscience-stricken screenwriter-turned-werewolf flees into hiding with his two teenaged children. Bitten by a werewolf near Pismo Beach, Ken pulls up stakes for his native Maine, settling in a small town, taking a job with a local telemarketer and figuring that his son Danny can row him out to a nearby offshore nature preserve whenever the full moon appears. That scheme works well enough for a while, even after a marijuana grower surreptitiously lands on the island one moonlit night and barely escapes with his life. Then a vicious December cold snap freezes the entire harbor, allowing the murderous monster access to the mainland, and Danny’s heroic efforts to drive his ravening dad back over the ice using smuggled fireworks leave the telemarketer’s office building a smoking ruin. Garfield lets the tale trail off shortly thereafter, rather than resolving anything—but readers will sympathize with Danny and his sister Miranda, as would-be normal teens forced into the role of protectors and caregivers for their feckless, periodically deadly parent. Readers who enjoyed the sardonic undercurrents in M.T. Anderson’s Thirsty (1997) are apt to catch them here, too. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-689-85180-4
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Richard Jackson/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
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