by Joanne Dahme ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2008
In this brooding debut teen chiller, 13-year-old Courtney “never had believed in wicked witches, invisible ghosts, or haunted ivy,” but everything changes when she and her parents move into an 18th-century stone house adjacent a Puritan cemetery in Murmur, Mass. Gazing at the vine-draped house and trees, Courtney wonders, “What’s with all the ivy?” Quickly obsessed with the equally ivy-infested cemetery, Courtney finds herself drawn to Christian and Margaret Geyer, an eccentric father and daughter intent on resolving a family mystery. As Courtney and the ethereal Margaret piece together clues from old journals and newspapers, the ivy invasion of Courtney’s house becomes increasingly demonic. Frightened, but determined to help her friends, Courtney realizes spirits both visible and invisible are using her to find the missing remains of Margaret’s ancestor Prudence to release an ancient spell surrounding the house. The suspense builds, but like a true gothic heroine, Courtney keeps her cool and retains just enough disbelief to prove credible amid the graveyard gloom and irrational ivy. A creepy but grounded caper. (Horror. 12-14)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-7624-3313-1
Page Count: 232
Publisher: Running Press
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2008
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by Ransom Riggs ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 7, 2011
A trilogy opener both rich and strange, if heavy at the front end.
Riggs spins a gothic tale of strangely gifted children and the monsters that pursue them from a set of eerie, old trick photographs.
The brutal murder of his grandfather and a glimpse of a man with a mouth full of tentacles prompts months of nightmares and psychotherapy for 15-year-old Jacob, followed by a visit to a remote Welsh island where, his grandfather had always claimed, there lived children who could fly, lift boulders and display like weird abilities. The stories turn out to be true—but Jacob discovers that he has unwittingly exposed the sheltered “peculiar spirits” (of which he turns out to be one) and their werefalcon protector to a murderous hollowgast and its shape-changing servant wight. The interspersed photographs—gathered at flea markets and from collectors—nearly all seem to have been created in the late 19th or early 20th centuries and generally feature stone-faced figures, mostly children, in inscrutable costumes and situations. They are seen floating in the air, posing with a disreputable-looking Santa, covered in bees, dressed in rags and kneeling on a bomb, among other surreal images. Though Jacob’s overdeveloped back story gives the tale a slow start, the pictures add an eldritch element from the early going, and along with creepy bad guys, the author tucks in suspenseful chases and splashes of gore as he goes. He also whirls a major storm, flying bullets and a time loop into a wild climax that leaves Jacob poised for the sequel.
A trilogy opener both rich and strange, if heavy at the front end. (Horror/fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: June 7, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-59474-476-1
Page Count: 234
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2014
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by Walter Dean Myers ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 31, 1999
The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes...
In a riveting novel from Myers (At Her Majesty’s Request, 1999, etc.), a teenager who dreams of being a filmmaker writes the story of his trial for felony murder in the form of a movie script, with journal entries after each day’s action.
Steve is accused of being an accomplice in the robbery and murder of a drug store owner. As he goes through his trial, returning each night to a prison where most nights he can hear other inmates being beaten and raped, he reviews the events leading to this point in his life. Although Steve is eventually acquitted, Myers leaves it up to readers to decide for themselves on his protagonist’s guilt or innocence.
The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes written entirely in dialogue alternate with thoughtful, introspective journal entries that offer a sense of Steve’s terror and confusion, and that deftly demonstrate Myers’s point: the road from innocence to trouble is comprised of small, almost invisible steps, each involving an experience in which a “positive moral decision” was not made. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: May 31, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-028077-8
Page Count: 280
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1999
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