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THE SPELL OF THE SORCERER'S SKULL

The third, least compelling adventure for Johnny Dixon—the 1950s boy-hero of The Curse of the Blue Figurine and The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt. This time Johnny and Professor Childermass take a vacation trip up to a countryinn in New Hampshire, where the Prof immediately spots an unusual shelf clock that was stolen from his ancestral home some years ago: the bottom half of the clock contains a dollhouse room, a replica of the Victorian parlor wherein Prof. Childermass' great-uncle died in a bizarre fashion. Furthermore, during the night, Johnny sees the dollhouse room come to life (!); a tiny skull, from a shelf within the mini-room, falls out of the dollhouse; and Johnny, under some odd compulsion, secretly pockets this creepy talisman. Unsurprisingly, then, strange things start happening once Johnny and the Prof return to Duston Heights, Mass. A jack-o'-lantern mirage keeps appearing at the windows of the Professor's house. Then the Prof vanishes—appearing to Johnny only in a mirror-vision (mouthing "Help me"), leaving behind a few tiny clues. So, with pal Fergie and Catholic priest Father Higgins, Johnny starts on a sleuthing trail after the Professor; the clues eventually lead to a clock museum, a cemetery chapel, and a demon-possessed Professor—all on an island off the Maine coast. And the drawn-out, rather murky finale involves a book of black magic and a vengeful spirit (out to destroy the Professor because of a long-ago crime), with the devil-fighting powers of the True Cross and the Latin church Mass finally saving the day. Throughout, in fact, this thick occult stew is dubiously flavored with Catholic rites and totems—including a prayer to St. Anthony that produces a miraculous clue. ("It was possible that St. Anthony or some higher power had spoken.") More important, while Bellairs turns up the supernatural heat here, he leaves the characters almost entirely undeveloped: Johnny's home-life problems (father in Korea, mother dead, grandmother ill) barely get a mention this time, and there's little pizzazz in the supporting cast. A disappointing follow-up, then, but brightly inventive enough (especially in the creepy dollhouse notion) to provide a new chill or twist every few pages.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1984

ISBN: 0142402656

Page Count: 180

Publisher: Dial Books

Review Posted Online: April 17, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1984

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THE HAUNTING

A flawed but entertaining Halloween thriller.

Penny’s sleepy little farming town hasn’t been the same since it was terrorized by a masked killer who claimed five teenage victims last Halloween.

That killer just happened to be the father of her ex-boyfriend, Nash, and afterward, Penny’s parents forced her to break up with Nash. This October, everyone is on edge. Nash and his sister, Grace, are local outcasts, and when Penny finds another classmate’s dead body while shopping for Halloween costumes in a party supply store, the proverbial pitchforks come out. As the body count rises, the townspeople quickly blame Nash and Grace. To take the heat off Nash, for whom Penny still has feelings, the two team up to try to figure out the killer’s identity. But when it becomes apparent that the killer is targeting Penny, their mission becomes a matter of life or death. Suspenseful chases and mysterious sightings interspersed with an occasional dead body keep the pacing fast and consistent. The setting is reminiscent of Scream’s Woodsboro, and Preston makes good use of spooky Halloween decorations. The character development is light, and readers will quickly become frustrated with the many poor choices Penny makes. The abrupt ending may irritate some, but slasher fans will nevertheless enjoy trying to figure out who the menacing person hiding behind a mask is. Penny and Nash are cued white; Penny’s friends include some racial and religious diversity.

A flawed but entertaining Halloween thriller. (Thriller. 12-18)

Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023

ISBN: 9780593481516

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Delacorte

Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023

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SIX OF CROWS

Cracking page-turner with a multiethnic band of misfits with differing sexual orientations who satisfyingly, believably jell...

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Adolescent criminals seek the haul of a lifetime in a fantasyland at the beginning of its industrial age.

The dangerous city of Ketterdam is governed by the Merchant Council, but in reality, large sectors of the city are given over to gangs who run the gambling dens and brothels. The underworld's rising star is 17-year-old Kaz Brekker, known as Dirtyhands for his brutal amorality. Kaz walks with chronic pain from an old injury, but that doesn't stop him from utterly destroying any rivals. When a councilman offers him an unimaginable reward to rescue a kidnapped foreign chemist—30 million kruge!—Kaz knows just the team he needs to assemble. There's Inej, an itinerant acrobat captured by slavers and sold to a brothel, now a spy for Kaz; the Grisha Nina, with the magical ability to calm and heal; Matthias the zealot, hunter of Grishas and caught in a hopeless spiral of love and vengeance with Nina; Wylan, the privileged boy with an engineer's skills; and Jesper, a sharpshooter who keeps flirting with Wylan. Bardugo broadens the universe she created in the Grisha Trilogy, sending her protagonists around countries that resemble post-Renaissance northern Europe, where technology develops in concert with the magic that's both coveted and despised. It’s a highly successful venture, leaving enough open questions to cause readers to eagerly await Volume 2.

Cracking page-turner with a multiethnic band of misfits with differing sexual orientations who satisfyingly, believably jell into a family . (Fantasy. 14 & up)

Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-62779-212-7

Page Count: 480

Publisher: Henry Holt

Review Posted Online: June 28, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015

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