A satisfying quasi-supernatural thriller.
A teenage girl obscured behind her single father’s scary stories fights to get her own last word.
The daughter of iconic horror film director Nolan Nox, 17-year-old Lola has only sardonic quips for comfort after she finds her father stabbed. His assistant sends her away from New York City to stay with her maternal grandmother while her father is in the hospital. Lola’s prickly attitude and macabre imagination fuel the narrative as she explores Harrow Lake, Indiana, the creepy hometown of a mother she hasn’t seen since she was 5. After Lola’s mother, Lorelei, starred in a film her father shot there, she got the hell out and never came back. Years later she left her husband and child and disappeared. After Lola arrives, her suitcase mysteriously vanishes, leaving Lola to wear Lorelei’s old film costumes in ominous homage. Lola knows her dad’s movies inside and out, and she’s full too of classic scary movie references: Pennywise, Chucky, even Ellen Ripley. A sympathetic, quick-witted heroine, she at first refuses to be terrified as Harrow Lake presents her with all the trappings of a malevolent place: skittering bugs, disappearing girls, disembodied hands, a living doll, and a nightmare figure who goes by Mister Jitters. Her unflinching devotion to her absent father, whose stern voice rings in her head, tells a sinister story that slowly builds to a heart-pounding climax. Main characters are white.
A satisfying quasi-supernatural thriller. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-1453-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Kathy Dawson/Penguin
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
How can such a hefty tome be un-put-down-able excitement from beginning to end? (glossary) (Fantasy. 14 & up)
This hefty sequel to Six of Crows (2015) brings high-tension conclusions to the many intertwined intrigues of Ketterdam.
It's time for revenge—has been ever since old-before-his-time crook Kaz and his friends were double-crossed by the merchant princes of Ketterdam, an early-industrial Amsterdam-like fantasy city filled to the brim with crime and corruption. Disabled, infuriated, and perpetually scheming Kaz, the light-skinned teen mastermind, coordinates the efforts to rescue Inej. Though Kaz is loath to admit weakness, Inej is his, for he can't bear any harm come to the knife-wielding, brown-skinned Suli acrobat. Their team is rounded out by Wylan, a light-skinned chemist and musician whose merchant father tried to have him murdered and who can't read due to a print disability; Wylan's brown-skinned biracial boyfriend, Jesper, a flirtatious gambler with ADHD; Nina, the pale brunette Grisha witch and recovering addict from Russia-like Ravka; Matthias, Nina's national enemy and great love, a big, white, blond drüskelle warrior from the cold northern lands; and Kuwei, the rescued Shu boy everyone wants to kidnap. Can these kids rescue everyone who needs rescuing in Ketterdam's vile political swamp? This is dark and violent—one notable scene features a parade of teens armed with revolvers, rifles, pistols, explosives, and flash bombs—but gut-wrenchingly genuine. Astonishingly, Bardugo keeps all these balls in the air over the 500-plus pages of narrative.
How can such a hefty tome be un-put-down-able excitement from beginning to end? (glossary) (Fantasy. 14 & up)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-62779-213-4
Page Count: 560
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
A suspenseful page-turner.
A paranoia-driven debut novel about a relationship twisted by obsession.
Logan struggles to move on after the death of his great love, Sophie. All he can do is go through the motions until he meets Delilah, a new senior who strongly resembles Sophie. Revived, Logan’s obsession grows as he stalks Delilah online and in real life. Meanwhile, Delilah—whose father died in a tragic accident—feels crushed by her mother’s abusive police detective boyfriend. Just when something happens to remove Brandon from their lives and she thinks everything might be turning around, Logan makes his move. As their relationship develops, Logan’s control over Delilah tightens, and dark secrets and violent decisions send both characters into a complex, dangerous spiral. At one point, as she thinks about her mother’s previous relationship and her own, Delilah’s web search about stalkers leads her to a description of erotomania. Set against a Northern California private school backdrop, the sensational plot is riddled with twists that come at a furious pace. Chapters alternate between Logan’s and Delilah’s perspectives, providing insight into their motives as well as shifting feelings of revulsion and admiration for each. The drama builds to a shocking, albeit abrupt, ending. Delilah is the stronger, more compelling protagonist when compared to Logan’s less nuanced development. Sophie was Japanese American, and Delilah is biracial with a Chinese Singaporean dad and White American mom; Logan is assumed White.
A suspenseful page-turner. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-72821-516-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Nov. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
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