An imaginative supernatural thriller novel set in a small town you won’t soon forget.
A teen psychic takes a mind-bending journey to save his town.
The Alvarado Hotel is calling to Quinn O’Brien, his best friend, June Pilsner, and his crush, Selena Garcia, in their dreams. This long-abandoned property was once the glamourous lifeblood of Gypsum, Texas (population 1,021), drawing in Hollywood starlets and directors. Quinn is trying to balance his growing feelings for Selena, grief over his grandmother’s death, and the looming foreclosure on his family’s land. As he tries to take on more fortunetelling clients to pay the bills, Quinn’s ventures into the darkness beyond become more and more dangerous. Something—or someone—is beckoning to him and his friends from the deep, asking to be freed. Lutz ably captures the desperation of adult problems being foisted onto young shoulders. As Quinn grapples with Gram’s death, he also faces the repercussions of his growing psychic gift, both from the supernatural and from his friends, who are growing concerned about his powers. The historical plotline and the journal entries threaded throughout the story are illuminating and entertaining. As the teens try to piece together what’s happening and save the day, horror fans will root for them to succeed while cringing at each false step they take. The evocatively remote setting will keep readers immersed in the moment. Quinn and June read white; Selena is cued Latine.
An imaginative supernatural thriller novel set in a small town you won’t soon forget. (Paranormal. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2024
ISBN: 9780823454945
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
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
An affecting supernatural mystery with a pair of brave protagonists.
The disappearance of a child unveils what lies hiding in the woods at the edge of a small town.
There are all sorts of stories about Picnic, Illinois, but it’s not until her toddler cousin, Madison, goes missing from her crib one night that 15-year-old Luce starts to believe them—and especially when she notices a pair of glowing, wolflike eyes through the windows of her house. To everybody’s relief, Madison is returned to her crib, seemingly safe and sound, soon after she vanished, but Luce and the child’s mother notice discomfiting differences in the 2-year-old. And yet, no one else seems to give credence to their concerns. Luce, prompted by a teacher, starts to research Picnic’s history and the many disappearances—and sudden reappearances—of baby girls, going back decades. Meanwhile, deep in the woods, Fanya, who narrates alternating chapters, tends to the baby girl and prepares for the ritual to welcome her as part of her pack when the full moon comes. As Luce’s and Fanya’s stories converge, so do past and present in Lund’s atmospheric novel. The story borrows elements from South Slavic lore about women who turn into animals to tell an affecting tale about small-town secrets, wronged people, and the bravery of two girls bent on getting to the truth in order to save lives. All characters are assumed White.
An affecting supernatural mystery with a pair of brave protagonists. (Paranormal thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-35109-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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