A twisty supernatural drama.
A young woman uncovers the dark secrets of her family’s legacy in this duology opener.
Nineteen-year-old Cicely of the powerful Winter family has never fit the glossy, ruthless mold her relatives embody. Generations earlier, her great-grandmother bargained away her own soul (and the souls of every Winter descendant) to the Devil in exchange for magical powers. Each member of the family possesses a different supernatural gift “that gives them power over others.” Cicely’s talent for finding hidden things feels insignificant beside her mother’s ability to bend others to her will or her brother Felix’s knack for making people adore him. When a stranger crashes her family’s summer masquerade, drenches them in blood while they stand on stage, calls them murderers, and vows to bring about their destruction, Cicely is thrust into a mystery. As her relatives are targeted one by one, Cicely becomes desperate to uncover who is hunting them—and why. Soren Ashwood, once Felix’s best friend and a boy she believed her family murdered, has returned, alive and seemingly entangled in recent events. Her uneasy alliance with Soren deepens even as Cicely discovers the source of the greatest danger to the Winters. This solid gothic thriller featuring a white central cast excels at slow-burn suspense, layering betrayal, buried magic, and moral ambiguity with humor. While the revelations sometimes verge on melodrama, Cicely’s struggle to claim her identity amid generations of secrets lands with satisfying weight.
A twisty supernatural drama. (family tree) (Supernatural thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: July 7, 2026
ISBN: 9798217122080
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in.
Black is back with another dark tale of Faerie, this one set in Faerie and launching a new trilogy.
Jude—broken, rebuilt, fueled by anger and a sense of powerlessness—has never recovered from watching her adoptive Faerie father murder her parents. Human Jude (whose brown hair curls and whose skin color is never described) both hates and loves Madoc, whose murderous nature is true to his Faerie self and who in his way loves her. Brought up among the Gentry, Jude has never felt at ease, but after a decade, Faerie has become her home despite the constant peril. Black’s latest looks at nature and nurture and spins a tale of court intrigue, bloodshed, and a truly messed-up relationship that might be the saving of Jude and the titular prince, who, like Jude, has been shaped by the cruelties of others. Fierce and observant Jude is utterly unaware of the currents that swirl around her. She fights, plots, even murders enemies, but she must also navigate her relationship with her complex family (human, Faerie, and mixed). This is a heady blend of Faerie lore, high fantasy, and high school drama, dripping with description that brings the dangerous but tempting world of Faerie to life.
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in. (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-31027-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017
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