Thrash’s brazen characters and dark humor will compel readers forward.
The second installment of Thrash’s (We Know It Was You, 2016) Strange Truth series finds teen sleuths Benny Flax and Virginia Leeds embroiled in a series of increasingly twisted and interrelated mysteries.
Benny Flax’s ambition in founding the Mystery Club at Atlanta’s prestigious Winship Academy is to solve mysteries with an aim to seeking the truth, though bringing the guilty parties to justice is not his concern. Virginia Leeds is happy to be his partner as an antidote to the boredom of life as a boarder at Winship, though Benny himself remains a mystery to her. Thrash has perfected the voices of her white protagonists, two oddball outsiders whose quirks come off as natural in the context of her self-assured, madcap storytelling. Their latest case materializes at the school’s science expo, when a mysterious drug dealer in the girl’s bathroom is upstaged by an apparent freak accident in which DeAndre Bell, the popular African-American student-body president, is gruesomely impaled by a set of deer antlers. This dark chain of events sets Benny and Virginia down a maze of different paths to discover what really happened. Fast-paced and suspenseful, the plotting of this outing is both more plausible and more complicated than the last. The novel concludes on several cliffhangers and loose ends, leaving readers with plenty to ponder.
Thrash’s brazen characters and dark humor will compel readers forward. (Mystery. 14-adult)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-6203-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
Exhilarating, nonstop fun.
A murder on The Escape Game, a popular reality TV show, puts the next round of contestants at risk—can they all get out alive?
The previous season of the show, in which groups of teens race to get through escape rooms, ended in disaster when Sierra Angelos and her team discovered another player lying dead in a coffin—her older sister, Alicia. But the network and ruthless executive producer determine that the show will go on. Prickly, olive-skinned Sierra, whom some suspect of murder, is returning—and she’s determined to find the killer. Her new team includes math whiz Carter Kelly, who’s Black; home-schooled, white-presenting Beck Matheson, who designs his own escape rooms and is trans; and Aditya Parvesh, who’s cued South Asian, has a way with words, and was pushed into auditioning by his movie star mother. At first, Team Helsing struggles to gel, but the teens’ shared desire to prove themselves makes them a formidable powerhouse—even if they’re hiding some of their true goals from one another. As clues to the killer’s identity start appearing, the players must try to make it to the finale before someone else becomes the next victim. This thrilling whodunit moves at a page-turning pace; the occasional reveals for the main mystery are well balanced with the tighter sequences of solving the escape rooms. The narration rotates among the central cast, allowing readers to empathize with each character in turn and be privy to even more intrigue.
Exhilarating, nonstop fun. (Mystery. 14-18)Pub Date: April 7, 2026
ISBN: 9798217006120
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
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