An engaging and expansive mystery.
A Syracuse, New York, teen takes a summer job as a tour guide at a remote estate that was the summer home of a wealthy and eccentric family in the 1930s.
Marlowe Wexler is stunned but delighted that her crush on Akilah Jones, her classmate and ice cream shop co-worker, is reciprocated. But when she accidentally causes a house fire on their first date, she’s overwhelmed by anxiety, embarrassment, and doubt. When her history teacher recommends her for a job at historic Morning House in the St. Lawrence River’s Thousand Islands, Marlowe is eager to escape to a place where no one knows her. Soon she’s trying to find her footing among a troubled group of teens working there, all with their own messy secrets. Johnson’s latest juxtaposes Marlowe’s clever, funny, slightly neurotic first-person voice with chapters about the mysterious historical family, which included six children who were adopted from England during World War I by Phillip Ralston, a eugenicist physician. The other household members were Ralston’s sister, his actress wife, and their youngest child, a biological son. Compelling mysteries unfurl in the past and the present, centering on tragedies that befall both groups. Marlowe serves as an anchor amid the many contemporary characters who seem like they may be deceiving her, keeping readers guessing. Lesbian Marlowe reads white; Akilah is cued Black, and there’s diversity in race and sexual orientation among the supporting cast.
An engaging and expansive mystery. (map) (Mystery. 13-18)Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9780063255951
Page Count: 384
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2024
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
