A chilling concept weakened by confusing visuals that make it hard to stay immersed.
Influencer siblings are stranded on a frozen mountain, where survival depends on making it through something far more dangerous than the cold.
Follow Jen and Dante as they attempt their latest “Dare of the Day” with their team: photographers Bev and Tom and helicopter pilot Kyle. They head out snowboarding, but after Dante injures his foot on what appears to be a branch, the siblings and Bev decide to regroup at the landing site where Kyle and Tom are supposed to be waiting. But they arrive to find the men missing. Their search leads them to a nearby store, where a local named Tyler steals their snowboarding equipment. Joined by shop employees Callum and Amber, the trio follow Tyler’s snowmobile tracks into a forbidden area, where they encounter the thief, who warns of “nightmares, man, in the snow! Teeth like sharks!” While the premise blends social media culture, extreme sports, and horror in an intriguing way, the execution falters. Guerra’s blue, white, and gray color palette effectively conveys the cold, eerie atmosphere but doesn’t create clear visual distinctions among the characters, making it difficult to follow the dialogue and action. This confusion disrupts the pacing and undercuts the story’s tension, often requiring readers to pause and reread key moments. The light-skinned characters are racially ambiguous; Jen appears to have Afro-textured hair, and Callum may be cued as Indigenous.
A chilling concept weakened by confusing visuals that make it hard to stay immersed. (Graphic paranormal. 14-18)Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2026
ISBN: 9781546111177
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2026
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
An affecting supernatural mystery with a pair of brave protagonists.
The disappearance of a child unveils what lies hiding in the woods at the edge of a small town.
There are all sorts of stories about Picnic, Illinois, but it’s not until her toddler cousin, Madison, goes missing from her crib one night that 15-year-old Luce starts to believe them—and especially when she notices a pair of glowing, wolflike eyes through the windows of her house. To everybody’s relief, Madison is returned to her crib, seemingly safe and sound, soon after she vanished, but Luce and the child’s mother notice discomfiting differences in the 2-year-old. And yet, no one else seems to give credence to their concerns. Luce, prompted by a teacher, starts to research Picnic’s history and the many disappearances—and sudden reappearances—of baby girls, going back decades. Meanwhile, deep in the woods, Fanya, who narrates alternating chapters, tends to the baby girl and prepares for the ritual to welcome her as part of her pack when the full moon comes. As Luce’s and Fanya’s stories converge, so do past and present in Lund’s atmospheric novel. The story borrows elements from South Slavic lore about women who turn into animals to tell an affecting tale about small-town secrets, wronged people, and the bravery of two girls bent on getting to the truth in order to save lives. All characters are assumed White.
An affecting supernatural mystery with a pair of brave protagonists. (Paranormal thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-35109-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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