A refreshing ghost story delivering more psychology and good will than horror.
A supportive guidance counselor tries to help a small town’s ghost population in this novel.
Mr. Fellars is the beloved guidance counselor of Brownville High, a school in a small, working-class mill town. Despite dealing with some disciplinary problems at the school, Mr. Fellars is known for really listening to students. So it’s no surprise that when Randy Galphin’s ghost starts looking for advice, he shows up in Mr. Fellars’ office, just as he used to when he was a student at Brownville High. Though Randy was never someone to talk about his feelings while he was alive, as a spirit, he’s terrified to cross over. He’s been dead a number of years and is only now coming face to face with this fear because there are changes coming to Brownville. The mill is shutting down, and sadly, Brownville High is closing. This means Randy has until the end of the year to come to terms with his death. And Randy is not the only one. There is a host of died-too-young Brownville High students and town residents who have remained ghosts and must now learn to cross over. Deciding to aid these spirits, Mr. Fellars becomes a ghost guidance counselor. This ambitious novel offers not just one ghost story, but lots of them. Focusing on the lives and deaths of multiple characters, Floyd skillfully shows how much Mr. Fellars cares about these students while highlighting the tales of working-class families. Although the story is told from Mr. Fellars’ perspective, the narration often reads like third-person exposition as the counselor recites what he learns. Still, the ghosts themselves are engaging and also quite corporeal. The author delivers character descriptions that often help ground the tale. At one point, Randy asserts: “I could pull up my hair and show you the exit wound where the bullet came out the back of my head. It’s stuffed with mortician’s wax.” The fact that the apparitions are thoroughly believable helps offset a puzzling facet. It never quite makes sense that the spirits have to cross over when the school closes. But readers who don’t dwell on that matter will find this book an enjoyable read.
A refreshing ghost story delivering more psychology and good will than horror.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-9620031-4-1
Page Count: 279
Publisher: Wild Ideas
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A touching novel about loss with a magical and mystical flourish.
A young man helps the living and dead meet one last time under the full moon.
Japanese bestseller Tsujimura’s quiet novel follows a mysterious teenager known as the go-between, who can set up meetings between the living and the dead. An introverted woman wants to meet the television star with whom she has a parasocial relationship. A cynical eldest son hopes to visit his mother about their family business. A devastated high schooler fears she is responsible for her friend’s tragic death. And, finally, a middle-aged workaholic finally feels ready to find out if his fiancée, who disappeared seven years ago, is dead. Each character has a uniquely personal reason for seeking out the deceased, including closure and forgiveness, as well as selfishness and fear. Imbued with magic and the perfect amount of gravitas, there are many rules around these meetings: Only the living can make requests and they can only have one meeting per lifetime. Additionally, the dead can deny a meeting—and, most importantly, once the dead person has met with a living person, they will be gone forever. With secrets shared, confessions made, and regrets cemented, these meetings lead to joy and sorrow in equal measure. In the final chapter, all of these visits—and their importance in the go-between’s life—begin to gracefully converge. As we learn the go-between’s identity, we watch him struggle with the magnitude and gravity of his work. At one point, he asks: “When a life was lost, who did it belong to? What were those left behind meant to do with the incomprehensible, inescapable loss?” Though the story can be repetitive, Tsujimura raises poignant and powerful questions about what the living owe not only the dead, but each other; and how we make peace with others and ourselves in the wake of overwhelming grief.
A touching novel about loss with a magical and mystical flourish.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9781668099834
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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