A high concept shakily executed.
An itinerant teen faces down a megacorporation’s metaphysical machinations.
Swiller’s YA debut opens with acerbic narrator Wallace Cole en route from Kentucky to upstate New York. Since his mother died, his father’s job has taken them to 22 states, and he’s bounced through 14 high schools. Never mind that Wallace isn’t exactly sure what his father does—apparently he’s some sort of plant fixer for Jackduke, the country’s second largest energy company. Wallace arrives in the Finger Lakes town of North Homer, where high school students are succumbing to bouts of contagious hysteria. All the same, stakes escalate quickly and unevenly. Clichés abound: He meshes with misfits and beefs with a reactionary meathead. Wallace also falls for the brainy, gorgeous, high-achieving, inexplicably receptive homecoming queen, a turn of events that feels unearned. Mumbled explanations and illogical leaps hamstring the plot as Wallace suddenly discovers a grand conspiracy to destroy—well, call it what you will—the soul, spirit, human essence. The resulting text—too dense for a thriller and too anemic for science fiction—seems unsure of itself. Syntactical rollicks between utter despair and ostensible sincerity prevent tone from aligning with diction. Is this a sweeping social satire? Analogy for a generation’s righteous angst? Derivative bildungsroman? Amid a world on fire reduced to a smolder, who’s to say? All characters are assumed White.
A high concept shakily executed. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-11957-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter.
After a Nigerian British girl goes off to an exclusive boarding school that seems to prey on less-privileged students, she discovers there might be some truth behind an urban legend.
Ife Adebola joins the Urban Achievers scholarship program at pricey, high-pressure Nithercott School, arriving shortly after a student called Leon mysteriously disappeared. Gossip says he’s a victim of the glowing-eyed Changing Man who targets the lonely, leaving them changed. Ife doesn’t believe in the myth, but amid the stresses of Nithercott’s competitive, privileged, majority-white environment, where she is constantly reminded of her state school background, she does miss her friends and family. When Malika, a fellow Black scholarship student, disappears and then returns, acting strangely devoid of personality, Ife worries the Changing Man is real—and that she’s next. Ife joins forces with classmate Bijal and Benny, Leon’s younger brother, to uncover the truth about who the Changing Man is and what he wants. Culminating in a detailed, gory, and extended climactic battle, this verbose thriller tempts readers with a nefarious mystery involving racial and class-based violence but never quite lives up to its potential and peters out thematically by its explosive finale. However, this debut offers highly visually evocative and eerie descriptions of characters and events and will appeal to fans of creature horror, social commentary, and dark academia.
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781250868138
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
A gripping tribute to resilience.
A girl with amnesia and a boy suspected of harming his girlfriend overcome adversity to find the answers they seek.
A 17-year-old girl wakes up in a ditch, disoriented and with no memory of who she is or what happened. Found by the Alton, Oregon, police, she is brought to the station. Soon after, Wayne Boone, a man claiming to be her father, shows up. He has photos of her on his phone and her high school ID card, with the name Mary Boone. Wayne convinces the police to release Mary into his custody. The more time Mary spends with Wayne, however, the weirder things get: He’s unaware of her food allergy, and as her memories start to return, they don’t conform with Wayne’s versions of her life. In the town of Washington City, across the Willamette River, Drew is in a bad place. His girlfriend, Lola, has disappeared, and Drew was the last person to see her. His adoptive dads and cousin are the only ones who support him; everyone else, including the sheriff, thinks he’s responsible for Lola’s disappearance. Intent on finding Lola, Drew finds help in an unlikely ally, Lola’s best friend, Autumn, who is the sheriff’s daughter. But will they find Lola in time? The two immersive storylines bring to life the trials and frustrations each main character faces in this debut, which is a thrilling delight right up to the unexpected and bittersweet conclusion. Most characters are cued white; one of Drew’s dads is Guatemalan.
A gripping tribute to resilience. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781728270111
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
