by Kim Savage ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 21, 2017
Haunting and mesmerizing.
After two sisters commit suicide, the boy next door traces the notes one left behind for him.
Ben Lattanzi, a white teen toiling in small-town Massachusetts, receives a letter from Mira Cillo seven days after she and her sister, Francesca, died. They were found at the bottom of the quarry lake, tangled together. Compounding the tragedy, their cousin Connie Villela had passed away only months before. In her letter, Mira tells Ben that everyone wanted to touch her and Francesca and that by going to the seven locations he touched her, he’ll discover the truth. Ben, known as sensitive due to a public childhood trauma, becomes enamored with the notion of reconnecting with Mira, whom he briefly dated but long adored. Soon he realizes the story Mira wants to tell isn’t about her—it’s about her sister and the months leading to their fatal fall. Mira, Francesca, and Connie, all white, were bonded by shared blood and would do anything for each other. Through a haze of longing, Ben finds out just what that means as he pieces together Mira’s last messages. Told through both Ben’s and the girls’ perspectives, the mystery unfolds with aching precision—both Ben’s grief and the sisters’ pain can be acutely traced as they grow. Even though the truth can be seen before it’s revealed, the girls’ secrets pack a gut punch that lingers.
Haunting and mesmerizing. (Fiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: Feb. 21, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-374-30059-3
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
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New York Times Bestseller
by Rebecca Ross ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 4, 2023
Ideal for readers seeking perspectives on war, with a heavy dash of romance and touch of fantasy.
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New York Times Bestseller
A war between gods plays havoc with mortals and their everyday lives.
In a time of typewriters and steam engines, Iris Winnow awaits word from her older brother, who has enlisted on the side of Enva the Skyward goddess. Alcohol abuse led to her mother’s losing her job, and Iris has dropped out of school and found work utilizing her writing skills at the Oath Gazette. Hiding the stress of her home issues behind a brave face, Iris competes for valuable assignments that may one day earn her the coveted columnist position. Her rival for the job is handsome and wealthy Roman Kitt, whose prose entrances her so much she avoids reading his articles. At home, she writes cathartic letters to her brother, never posting them but instead placing them in her wardrobe, where they vanish overnight. One day Iris receives a reply, which, along with other events, pushes her to make dramatic life decisions. Magic plays a quiet role in this story, and readers may for a time forget there is anything supernatural going on. This is more of a wartime tale of broken families, inspired youths, and higher powers using people as pawns. It flirts with clichéd tropes but also takes some startling turns. Main characters are assumed White; same-sex marriages and gender equality at the warfront appear to be the norm in this world.
Ideal for readers seeking perspectives on war, with a heavy dash of romance and touch of fantasy. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-85743-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
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by Tomi Oyemakinde ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 2023
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
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