A haunting testament to grief’s insatiable appetite and the need for hope in our darkest hours.
Shadowed by twin family tragedies, high school senior Emma returns to her hometown of Scarrow, Maine, seeking answers.
A bog known as the Moss abuts Emma’s home, Lark House. Tales of those drawn to the Moss’ mysterious pull have been passed down through the centuries. Its stagnant ponds, snakelike vines, and enveloping mist assert a sinister hold over those who hear the whispers and see the lurking ghostly apparitions. Five years ago, Emma’s mother fell under the Moss’ spell, vanishing into the bog without a trace. A year ago, grief over Mom’s loss led Emma’s older sister, Eve, into its depths. Police suspicions fell on Emma’s father, and he sent Emma to California to live with her aunt. But, haunted by voices and ghosts, Emma feels duty-bound to find her sister. This story contains folk-horror elements, including an atmospheric rural setting whose wild nature is both beautiful and malevolent. Emma’s first-person narration meaningfully explores themes such as isolation and helplessness and their lasting impact on emotional health, although the middle portion of her journey feels slow and repetitive. Emma’s grief, like the Moss itself, becomes a lurking presence—“untouchable” yet “always feeding and growing.” Also much like the Moss, a place caught between life and death, Emma exists in an emotional state somewhere between distress over all that has been lost and the rebirth of a fragile optimism. Main characters read white.
A haunting testament to grief’s insatiable appetite and the need for hope in our darkest hours. (Supernatural thriller. 12-18)Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9781665984492
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
A uniquely arranged bouquet of terrors, as disturbing as it is beautiful.
A family’s secrets rise to the surface as a young man investigates a suspected murder.
Evander, who’s 17 and lonely, never leaves his room in the manor on Hazelthorn Estate. He’s told he’s too fragile and is locked away “for his safety” while an elderly butler feeds him brain-addling “medicine.” But one night changes Evander’s life—and the manor’s future—forever. Byron Lennox-Hall, Evander’s billionaire guardian and the family’s patriarch, dies unexpectedly. Relatives descend upon Hazelthorn like vultures as a shocking twist reveals that Byron left everything to Evander alone. Without Byron around to keep his only grandchild and presumed heir, Laurence “Laurie” Lennox-Hall, away from his ward, Laurie and Evander become the unlikeliest of allies. When they were boys, Laurie attempted to kill Evander—but, maddeningly, Evander can’t stop thinking about him. He also suspects that someone murdered Byron. Drews’ latest starts off as a straightforward whodunit and turns into something that’s far more sinister—and delicious. From descriptions of moth-eaten decay to vivid floral imagery, Drews luxuriates in atmospheric prose. Their literary green thumb nurtures intertwining themes of monstrosity and abuse alongside yearning, first love, queerness, and mystery. The slow-burn romance at the root of this blend of gothic and body horror is as tender as it is unforgettable. Evander is cued as autistic, and main characters present white.
A uniquely arranged bouquet of terrors, as disturbing as it is beautiful. (author’s note) (Horror. 13-18)Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781250376299
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
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
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