A ghastly good time.
Two kids team up to unravel a sinister, supernatural summer-camp mystery in 1983.
Corryn’s at Camp Sweetwater while her parents work on the divorce they think she doesn’t know about. She bonds with Tez when they see eerie faces in the bonfire after a strange stick is added to it during their first night there. In their alternating first-person, present-tense narration, scares come fast and furious, with only the duo seeing (or, at least, acknowledging) that something’s wrong. As the scares grow into physical dangers, action-oriented Corryn and scientifically minded Tez unearth the history of the camp. In a neat subversion of an oft-used trope, they learn that in the 1700s, the lake was cursed by the actions of a nefarious French trapper, leading the resident Miami Nation to abandon the area. Since the 1880s, the summer camp has opened and closed in 20-year cycles marked by disappearances—the first being the three girls whose faces the duo saw in the fire. Tez faces extra risks in physical scenes, as he has Marfan syndrome—only the staff knows; he’s enjoying having his peers treat him like a “regular kid.” Corryn presents white, and Tez is biracial, identifying as “half Chamorro” (his father is from Guam); other campers are diverse. While the main storyline resolves, a tantalizing ending suggests there are more chills to come in a planned sequel.
A ghastly good time. (Horror. 8-14)Pub Date: May 26, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-287163-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
A thrilling and chilling end to a standard-setting series.
Arden’s quartet of seasonal horrors concludes with sinister clowns at a carnival.
A dry summer in East Evansburg sends friends Brian, Coco, and Phil to Lethe Creek to cool off. But there’s been an Ollie-shaped hole in everyone’s lives since the dastardly “smiling man” took her. The smiling man releases one of his other trapped children to deliver a message: they’ll need three hidden keys to win Ollie back. Meanwhile, Ollie—traveling with the smiling man and his carnival—tries to figure out a way to escape him on her own. When the carnival moves to East Evansburg, the stage is set for the final showdown. By day, it’s a fun-filled paradise. By night, the carnival’s clowns hunt wayward children to turn into dolls. Without the keys, Ollie and friends will be next. While predatory clowns and humans-turned-dolls are far from new territory, Arden once again flexes her gift for atmospheric writing to envelop readers in the story’s eerie mist. The expert use of pacing and sensory cues—sights, sounds, and smells—helps heighten the genuinely terrifying chase scenes. Chess matches and conversations between Ollie and the smiling man humanize the shape-shifting villain, exposing just enough of his motives to wrap up unanswered questions. Earlier volumes establish that most characters are White and Brian is Black.
A thrilling and chilling end to a standard-setting series. (Horror. 9-13)Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-10918-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
An intriguing mystery with a satisfying emotional payoff.
When Rafa Alvarez and his two best friends decide to bring their favorite role-playing game into the real world, the consequences become just as real.
Between his father’s strict nature and his mother’s worsening illness, Cuban American Rafa has retreated into playing The Forgotten Age with Beto and Yesi. However, after they attempt to steal a slushie machine from the school cafeteria as part of the game, Dad decides Rafa would best learn his lesson by spending a month on a ranch…all the way across the country from Florida in New Mexico. When Rafa arrives at Rancho Espanto, or Terror Ranch, he forms new friendships with Korean American Jennie Kim, the librarian’s daughter, and Black barn manager Marcus Coleman, an army veteran. But when a strange man in a green sweater begins to appear, causing chaos for Rafa, the seemingly sedate ranch becomes the site of an exciting—and slightly terrifying—mystery to solve. Together, Rafa and Jennie work to uncover the strange (possibly paranormal) happenings at Rancho Espanto. While the mystery lies at the core of this novel, the exploration of themes of loss, grief, and identity add complexity. Readers familiar with these subjects will see themselves in Rafa as he struggles to come to terms with and understand his mother’s condition and build his own identity.
An intriguing mystery with a satisfying emotional payoff. (Mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9780374390433
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
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