A creepy and often exciting novel featuring timeless legends and lore in small-town America.
DeGuire presents a spooky tale of an aging witch embarking on a mission of vengeance in a town in rural Vermont that’s rife with horrors.
At the opening of this debut novel, elderly Bridgett Bishop is living a quiet existence in the town of Killington, Vermont. It’s Halloween, and her community has no idea that she’s a real-deal witch, descended from witches from Salem, Massachusetts. She feels lonely and isolated, so she decides to finally get into the holiday spirit by putting out high-quality candy and hanging decorations to attract visitors. However, when trick-or-treaters do arrive, they don’t take the candy, but instead egg Bridgett and her house, fleeing and laughing as she tries to gather herself up from the floor. Hurt and enraged, Bridgett treats the next trick-or-treater very differently, snatching the solitary young boy out of the darkness. Meanwhile, Count Dracula and his companion, Aoife, live secretly in the morgue at the local St. Mary’s hospital, and are assisted in their day-to-day lives by Noah and Connor, a couple who own a local rare bookstore. The pair even save Dracula and Aoife from the pitchforks of an angry mob through a clever bit of espionage. The town offers an array of sinister knowledge and objects which Bridgett can use to carry out her mission of revenge, as she soon turns to none other than Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for “prescriptions” before breaking into the local museum to reanimate the mummy of Anubis, among other Egyptian gods. As the town devolves into fear and panic, it seems clear that the local flock of monsters will soon rule the roost.
DeGuire has selected the perfect locale for an autumnal holiday tale, and he knows how to capture its famous pastoral appeal with a hint of spookiness: “The swooping mass of swarming birds morphed into graceful shapes at first, but then the images became more sinister and familiar. A hideous skeletal face, a jack-o-lantern, and a ghoul that would give Edvard Munch pause.” There’s quite a bit going on in these pages, as disparate legends and mythologies overlap and collide in rapid succession; not only witches and vampires, but also werewolves and even Frankenstein’s monster make appearances, all coming together in a sort of royal rumble of malevolent fictional figures. Although this arrangement requires significant suspension of disbelief from readers, it is likely, given it squarely falls within the horror genre, that most of the intended audience will enjoy seeing the likes of Count Dracula and a New England witch on the same page. There are some times when DeGuire moves a bit too quickly from character to character without giving readers time to properly settle in; this is especially true in the case of Bridgett, whose character might have benefited from a bit more pathos and introspection. Still, the author’s approach results in a pace that keeps the pages turning at a satisfying clip, and readers are apt to wing their way through to the end.
A creepy and often exciting novel featuring timeless legends and lore in small-town America.Pub Date: June 4, 2024
ISBN: 9798990870901
Page Count: 386
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
Though it falters a bit under its own weight, this series still has plenty of fight left.
In this long-awaited fifth installment of Shannon’s Bone Season series, the threat to the clairvoyant community spreads like a plague across Europe.
After extending her fight against the Republic of Scion to Paris, Paige Mahoney, leader of London’s clairvoyant underworld and a spy for the resistance movement, finds herself further outside her comfort zone when she wakes up in a foreign place with no recollection of getting there. More disturbing than her last definitive memory, in which her ally-turned-lover Arcturus seems to betray her, is that her dreamscape—the very soul of her clairvoyance—has been altered, as if there’s a veil shrouding both her memories and abilities. Paige manages to escape and learns she’s been missing and presumed dead for six months. Even more shocking is that she’s somehow outside of Scion’s borders, in the free world where clairvoyants are accepted citizens. She gets in touch with other resistance fighters and journeys to Italy to reconnect with the Domino Programme intelligence network. In stark contrast to the potential of life in the free world is the reality that Scion continues to stretch its influence, with Norway recently falling and Italy a likely next target. Paige is enlisted to discover how Scion is bending free-world political leaders to its will, but before Paige can commit to her mission, she has her own mystery to solve: Where in the world is Arcturus? Paige’s loyalty to Arcturus is tested as she decides how much to trust in their connection and how much information to reveal to the Domino Programme about the Rephaite—the race of immortals from the Netherworld, Arcturus’ people—and their connection to the founding of Scion, as well as the presence of clairvoyant abilities on Earth. While the book is impressively multilayered, the matter-of-fact way in which details from the past are sprinkled throughout will have readers constantly flipping to the glossary. As the series’ scope and the implications of the war against Scion expand, Shannon’s narrative style reads more action-thriller than fantasy. Paige’s powers as a dreamwalker are rarely used here, but when clairvoyance is at play, the story shines.
Though it falters a bit under its own weight, this series still has plenty of fight left.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9781639733965
Page Count: 576
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It's almost enough to make a person believe in ghosts.
A disturbing household secret has far-reaching consequences in this dark, unusual ghost story.
Mallory Quinn, fresh out of rehab and recovering from a recent tragedy, has taken a job as a nanny for an affluent couple living in the upscale suburb of Spring Brook, New Jersey, when a series of strange events start to make her (and her employers) question her own sanity. Teddy, the precocious and shy 5-year-old boy she's charged with watching, seems to be haunted by a ghost who channels his body to draw pictures that are far too complex and well formed for such a young child. At first, these drawings are rather typical: rabbits, hot air balloons, trees. But then the illustrations take a dark turn, showcasing the details of a gruesome murder; the inclusion of the drawings, which start out as stick figures and grow increasingly more disturbing and sophisticated, brings the reader right into the story. With the help of an attractive young gardener and a psychic neighbor and using only the drawings as clues, Mallory must solve the mystery of the house's grizzly past before it's too late. Rekulak does a great job with character development: Mallory, who narrates in the first person, has an engaging voice; the Maxwells' slightly overbearing parenting style and passive-aggressive quips feel very familiar; and Teddy is so three-dimensional that he sometimes feels like a real child.
It's almost enough to make a person believe in ghosts.Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-81934-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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