Atmospherically grapples with literal and figurative ghosts in an eerie Indiana.
A long-standing feud simmers with supernatural significance.
It’s been only a year since Madoc Miller killed Ava Thorn’s parents in a car crash, but the tensions between the two families go back generations—and now he’s taking her home. Heir to a faded fortune and a legacy of bad luck, 17-year-old Ava’s forced out of Thorn Manor when Uncle Ty sells the ancestral heap to Madoc and his family. Stuck in Burden Falls, Indiana, for her senior year, Ava is determined not to let the Miller siblings—flamboyant Freya and her older brother, Dominic, a haughty hottie—profit from her family’s tragedies and her private grief. The duo are internet-famous thanks to their phony paranormal web series, but Ava doesn’t want them to exploit Dead-Eyed Sadie, the eyeless ghost who is said to haunt Thorn Manor…and whose appearance supposedly presages death for the Thorns. Already juggling work, school, a complicated friendship, and a budding romance, Ava soon falls under suspicion for a series of deaths and disfiguring attacks. A small-town goth in a gothic tale, aspiring graphic novelist Ava is a tart-tongued, realistically rendered heroine, snarky but sympathetic—think Scooby Doo meets Veronica Mars. Maintaining her knack for spooky suspense, Ellis keeps the tension taut, delivering a gritty whodunit, a spine-tingling supernatural story, and a twisty psychological thriller all in one. Ava and the Millers are White; there is some diversity in the supporting cast.
Atmospherically grapples with literal and figurative ghosts in an eerie Indiana. (Suspense. 14-18)Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-984814-56-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
A dynamic, suspenseful tale of friendship and betrayal.
In this thriller, two best friends find their relationship pushed to the breaking point.
After Brianna’s father became wealthy, Rain and Sydney felt abandoned by her as she warmed to her newfound acceptance by their more popular peers. Later, Rain also experiences a dramatic change in social class when her mother wins the lottery. This dark drama opens with a chapter from the perspective of Syd, whose sense of decency seems reliable even if her recollection of events, clouded by drug and alcohol use at a party the night before, does not. Alternating between Syd’s, Rain’s, and Brie’s points of view, and moving back and forth in time between the present and the periods before and after the house fire that claimed the life of one of the girls, the narrative structure sets the stage for a psychological mystery that explores loyalty and jealousy. There is a fair amount of coincidence packed into this story, but the intense emotions and yearnings each of the young women feel to be accepted and worthy ground this ever shifting novel in very real ways. Some readers will spot twists before they are revealed, but there is enough left up in the air until the very end to keep them hooked. The three main characters read as White; names signal some diversity in secondary characters.
A dynamic, suspenseful tale of friendship and betrayal. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: April 5, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-31270-9
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A powerful commentary on colonization and the right to rebel.
A 15-year-old conscripted into an army of child soldiers investigates her mother’s disappearance.
Being born a Scion, or human who inherits the powers of Yoruba deities, is a crime in Nagea. Sloane, the powerful descendant of Shango, the god of heat and fire, has àse: blood magic that ripples under her dark skin. Not yet controlled, it makes her a literal walking inferno when she is distressed. Drafted into the army ruled by the 13 Luci bloodlines who conquered and colonized Nagea under one rotating monarchy over three centuries ago, Sloane chooses not to run away even though her Baba warns her about the risks of going to the Lucis’ island stronghold: “A Scion in Avalon is a sheep in a lion’s den.” Determined to find out what happened to her mother, Sloane will do whatever it takes, removing any obstacle—human or otherwise—in search of the answers she needs. Sloane’s internal conflicts over her necessarily kill-or-be-killed attitude once on the base are grounded and relatable even as she endures immense physical and emotional violence. The well-paced closing action of the book is tidy, providing satisfactory resolutions for enough of the main mysteries while still leaving readers wanting more. With so much conflict to engage with, however, it’s difficult to get a full sense of the worldbuilding in this intriguing duology opener set in a Nigerian mythology–inspired setting.
A powerful commentary on colonization and the right to rebel. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: March 8, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-295404-6
Page Count: 432
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2022
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