An appealing young hero leads an indelible cast in this entertaining thriller.
A teenager faces a stalker menacing him and his rock star parents in this YA mystery.
Slate Volkov’s junior year at a Manhattan private academy is off to a bad start. He’s getting vaguely ominous texts from an anonymous “R” and spots a stranger following him. These threats soon name Slate’s parents—famous Russian rockers who can’t get United States citizenship until their American-born son is old enough to sponsor them. When his parents, headed back to their home country with their band mates, are in a car accident, there’s a chance this mishap was actually a deliberate attempt on their lives. As Slate struggles to identify as well as evade the “perv” incessantly stalking him, he learns that Russian thugs have been intimidating Galina Minkin, his motherly, full-time guardian in New York. As the new school year pushes on, he balances a semesterlong project with his amateur but potentially dangerous investigation. Luckily, new pals at the academy, along with his trustworthy best friend, John “Dash” Dasher, lend support as Slate fights to keep himself and his family safe. Mularz’s engaging tale moves at a steady clip, hitting the ground running as Slate receives an unnerving, cryptic text. But the teens’ compelling personal dramas take precedence over the mystery. Slate’s parents spend more time partying hard than with their only child, while Dash’s father, also a celebrity musician, seems even more neglectful. Furthermore, Slate’s fellow students include one who resents his wealth and privilege and another whose father may be abusing him. Still, it’s fun to watch Slate piece together certain clues, which he manages to do without putting himself or his friends in too much peril. Ample scenes pairing Slate and Dash make this a mostly lighthearted offering, as their version of rebelling against famous parents is jamming in their two-man, country-music band.
An appealing young hero leads an indelible cast in this entertaining thriller.Pub Date: Aug. 11, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-950613-76-2
Page Count: 250
Publisher: Taylor and Seale Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Truly fantastic.
This dark fantasy duology opener has a magic school, a death, and five students who find themselves stranded in the wilderness.
Ren Monroe is a promising student wizard at Balmerick, a private school in the city of Kathor. Along with her best friend, Timmons, Ren is one of the few welfare students attending on a scholarship, and despite being one of the most accomplished people at the school, finding a placement in one of the top houses is proving difficult and is a hurdle in the way of the secret mission Ren has set out to accomplish. When a portal spell goes awry and Ren, Timmons, and four other students from different walks of life are thrown together into the Dires, an uncharted land where the last dragons lived, one of them ends up dead and the rest need to learn to work together to make their way back home before they succumb to the harsh environment or the terrifying revenant following them. This may well be the chance Ren was looking for to prove her worth. Placing elements of a locked-room mystery and an original magic system within the familiar trappings of a school for magic, this is a no-holds-barred tale of revenge, atonement, and the pursuit of justice set in a world diverse in skin color and social classes. Ren is a protagonist for the ages: equal parts smart, calculating, and ruthless, forming a lethal package as an avenging angel.
Truly fantastic. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: March 28, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-66591-868-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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
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