A twisty thriller with superb worldbuilding and biting social commentary.
A young woman reluctantly takes a job working for a powerful vampire in Linde’s supernatural novel.
In a world where vampires rule and humans are barely able to make ends meet, Reyna Carpenter is desperate to find a job to ease the burden on her overworked brothers. She decides to apply at Visage, a vampire-run company specializing in “body employment services.” The company assigns humans (called “blood escorts”) to vampires with matching blood types, as “vampires who drank blood that matched the blood type they had when they were human functioned at higher cognitive levels.” Reyna is promptly assigned to Visage’s senior vice president, Beckham Anderson. Fighting their instant attraction to each other, Beckham quickly introduces her to the elite world of wealthy vampires. As he continually refuses to drink from her and rogue vampire attacks increase in frequency, Reyna senses there is something very wrong in Beckham’s world…and with Visage itself. As she delves into the dark underbelly of vampirism, Reyna discovers that there is something different about her that may threaten the fragile, decade-long peace between humans and vampires. In a somewhat saturated market of vampire fiction, the author manages to artfully dodge expectations while still occasionally indulging in the tropes of the genre. In particular, the economic disparity between humans and vampires is thoughtfully explored and adds relevance to an otherwise frothy thriller. When Reyna questions the vampire daughter of a local politician, for example, her frustrations sound eerily familiar: “Have you actually seen the streets?…Seen the people starving and dirty and poor? Seen the streets littered with filth and felt the utter despair?” The plot twists are genuinely surprising, and the story concludes with a deliciously foreboding cliffhanger. With realistic dialogue and a snappy pace, Linde has crafted a smart supernatural romance that isn’t afraid to tackle themes like abuse, greed, and social injustice.
A twisty thriller with superb worldbuilding and biting social commentary.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Vintage King: a pleasure for his many fans and not a bad place to start if you’re new to him.
The master of supernatural disaster returns with four horror-laced novellas.
The protagonist of the title story, Holly Gibney, is by King’s own admission one of his most beloved characters, a “quirky walk-on” who quickly found herself at the center of some very unpleasant goings-on in End of Watch, Mr. Mercedes, and The Outsider. The insect-licious proceedings of the last are revisited, most yuckily, while some of King’s favorite conceits turn up: What happens if the dead are never really dead but instead show up generation after generation, occupying different bodies but most certainly exercising their same old mean-spirited voodoo? It won’t please TV journalists to know that the shape-shifting bad guys in that title story just happen to be on-the-ground reporters who turn up at very ugly disasters—and even cause them, albeit many decades apart. Think Jack Torrance in that photo at the end of The Shining, and you’ve got the general idea. “Only a coincidence, Holly thinks, but a chill shivers through her just the same,” King writes, “and once again she thinks of how there may be forces in this world moving people as they will, like men (and women) on a chessboard.” In the careful-what-you-wish-for department, Rat is one of those meta-referential things King enjoys: There are the usual hallucinatory doings, a destiny-altering rodent, and of course a writer protagonist who makes a deal with the devil for success that he thinks will outsmart the fates. No such luck, of course. Perhaps the most troubling story is the first, which may cause iPhone owners to rethink their purchases. King has gone a far piece from the killer clowns and vampires of old, with his monsters and monstrosities taking on far more quotidian forms—which makes them all the scarier.
Vintage King: a pleasure for his many fans and not a bad place to start if you’re new to him.Pub Date: April 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-3797-7
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
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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