Beautiful, spooky, and emotional.
A group of teens face demons both literal and figurative to save their friend.
Noah returns from a Christian summer camp to find that Alex, a boy he’s closer to than many people realize, is missing. But not only is Noah’s friend group unconcerned, one of them goes out of his way to be mean, referring to Alex’s family as “crazy” and “clowns.” When he finally receives a text from Alex, Noah reaches out to Alex’s twin, Jamie, and friends Izzy and Skylar. They join Noah in searching for Alex, at the same time uncovering family history and mysteries and untangling how much of the problem is mental illness and how much is actual magic. Cleverly combining a creepy supernatural story with the story of a young person’s first, terrifying psychotic episode, Young carefully avoids using magic as a metaphor for psychosis, nor does psychosis become a source of cheap scares. The story explores themes of family, mental illness, faith, and queerness and features beautiful, warmly colored art. As Alex psychologically decompensates, the color palette becomes darker, and the images escape the confines of the panels. Though the artistic execution is excellent, the pages can feel overwhelmingly busy, and the time jumps, though often signaled by a change in color scheme, can disrupt the flow as readers pause to figure out what’s going on. Most central characters present white, and Izzy and Skylar are Asian.
Beautiful, spooky, and emotional. (Graphic horror. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780316509572
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown Ink
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
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
Heart-pounding.
A gay, transgender brujo with burgeoning powers seeks answers about his cousin’s death.
Sixteen-year-old Yadriel also wishes for acknowledgement from his community but unexpectedly finds himself entangled in the unresolved wishes of a strong-willed, good-looking spirit. He descends from a long line of brujx who have been granted magic power by Lady Death to heal the living and to guide spirits into the afterlife. Although he’s grown up surrounded by a close-knit community, Yadriel feels alone, excluded indefinitely from a sacred rite of passage because he is transgender. When he senses that his cousin Miguel has died suddenly but the family can’t locate him, Yadriel sees an opportunity to prove to everyone he’s a true brujo by solving the mystery and releasing his cousin’s lost spirit. His plan quickly falls apart, as he accidentally summons the spirit of Julian Diaz, a boy with unfinished business who died the same day as Miguel. Both the romance and mystery burn slow and hot until the climax. Stakes begin high, and the intensity only increases with a looming deadline and a constant risk that Julian might lose himself, turning maligno. The cast of characters represents a diversity of Latinx identities sharing a community in East Los Angeles. Julian is Colombian while Yadriel is Cuban and Mexican. Their romance provides joyful, ground-breaking representation for gay, transgender boys.
Heart-pounding. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-25046-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Swoon Reads/Macmillan
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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