Garfield fills in his werewolf hunter Moondog Nygerski’s (Moondog, 1995; Room 13, 1997) back story with an appetizing whirl of mysterious women, time travel, sex, gruesome death, lost innocence—and baseball, baseball, baseball. In keeping with his premise that time is no more linear than space, the plot curls back on itself repeatedly. Here, failed minor-league prospect Cyrus Nygerski meets beautiful, reticent Cassandra Paine in a bus station, takes her to a pivotal Red Sox/White Sox game (the famously tight pennant race of 1967), then loses her in the crowd. There, they fall in love months earlier, he turns into such an inspired hitter that the White Sox call him up to the “Show,” but after one at-bat wins a pivotal game, he’s murdered by a jealous husband. Meanwhile, on a Maine island, as Cassandra’s ten-year-old brother Timmy’s summer idyll is shattered by violence and parental infidelity, eerie, vulpine creatures appear beneath the full moon, and local tales tell of a bottomless pond with odd properties. As it shakes out, Cassandra becomes the tragic figure, traveling back in time to change the past by saving Nygerski, but then disappearing to protect him from her bestial alter ego. The breakup of the Paine family is detailed at length, and only tangentially relevant to the rest of the tale; otherwise, all the stories within stories make compelling reading, and their complex relationship is—more or less—made clear by the end. Textured, evocative prose that creates a rich milieu for a dark, multi-layered romance. (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: May 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83840-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Richard Jackson/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2001
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
Entertaining, heartfelt, and suspenseful: a superb addition to a beloved series.
Eighteen-year-old sleuth Stevie Bell is back to investigate another mystery in this stand-alone addition to the Truly Devious series.
Stevie is nursing a broken heart following her recent split from boyfriend David. Fed up with her parents’ lack of understanding and support—they regard her interest in solving murders as “creepy” and “weird”—she announces that she’s not coming home for Christmas. But now she’s at a loose end; spending winter break “alone on murder mountain” at Ellingham Academy, her Vermont boarding school, doesn’t seem ideal. So when the opportunity arises to accompany her close friend Nate to New York City, she willingly agrees. The third-person chapters switch between Stevie’s contemporary experience among a group of eccentric, often-clashing residents of a Manhattan apartment building and a young woman named Blue who becomes entangled in a cult in the 1970s. A trail of clues is laid that Stevie can’t resist following. Readers will be kept guessing how the intertwining storylines fit together until the very end. The novel expands to explore Stevie’s relationships and growth, including her ongoing management of her anxiety disorder. The marvelously clever dialogue, abundance of heart, and witty, memorable, and well-rounded cast elevate this beyond standard mystery fare. Both timelines establish the New York City setting as its own character. Stevie and Blue read white.
Entertaining, heartfelt, and suspenseful: a superb addition to a beloved series. (map) (Mystery. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780063256019
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2026
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