Who will receive the visions next? McMann gives fewer hints this time, but another dramatic, quick-paced thriller is certain.
Captivating in its own right, McMann’s second installment in the Visions trilogy is more than a bridge novel.
It’s been just over a week since Jules saved new boyfriend Sawyer and his family’s rival pizza parlor, and Sawyer has begun seeing his own visions of tragedy. The author ratchets up the intensity, as Sawyer’s visions appear in even more unusual venues and include sound—“[e]leven fucking gunshots” to be exact. Enlisting the help of Jules’ gay, older brother, Trey, the teens set out to solve the mystery of where the shooting takes place and who may be involved—on both sides of the gun. They deduce that the gunshots take place at a school, but talking and writing about a school shooting may get them into trouble. Playing sleuth rather than receiving the visions this time, Jules has more time to focus on the ethics of the visions, such as what purpose the visions fulfill and whether the recipients have a moral obligation to save the lives they see in their visions. It’s not just visions but Jules and Sawyer’s relationship that grows bolder, with both new emotional and physical feelings (though sex is not an issue yet).
Who will receive the visions next? McMann gives fewer hints this time, but another dramatic, quick-paced thriller is certain. (Supernatural thriller. 14 & up)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4424-6625-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2013
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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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