An inventive novel for readers who enjoy slightly macabre and unabashedly romantic tales.
Kassel (Blackbird of the Gallows, 2017, etc.) expands on the world of harbingers, beekeepers, and Strawmen in this paranormal romance sequel.
A young-looking man named Dresden is the victim of an ancient curse. Hundreds of years ago, sorcerers transformed him into an immortal weapon. His insides crawl with bees, and their sting can turn the darkness in a person’s mind into full-blown psychosis. His appearance ceaselessly shifts to display the faces of the people whom he’s killed. He’s compelled to wander the world in pursuit of victims, and he accomplishes this mission by following “harbingers of death”—shape-shifting humans who are attracted to the sites of impending tragedy. This dreary routine leads him to Essie Roane, a 17-year-old girl who struggles with a curse of her own. But Dresden surprises himself by sparing her—even though she’s someone whom the bees want him to target. This anomaly draws the attention of a Strawman, a creature of immense power and opaque motivations. Against his instincts, Dresden finds himself fighting to protect Essie from a tragic event that the harbingers sense, the attentions of the Strawman, and the ill will of another ominous stranger—all while struggling with feelings that he thought had died long ago. Meanwhile, Essie suffers from vivid hallucinations that doctors can’t diagnose; however, she finds Dresden to be uncommonly comforting. Kassel starts with a grim premise and isn’t afraid to take the story to some very dark places, requiring more morbid fascination from her readers than most paranormal YA stories do. The main characters deal with fantastic circumstances that set them far apart from most teenagers, creating opportunities for offbeat but realistic characterization. The supporting cast also provides some wonderful texture, such as Dresden’s begrudging friendship with a lighthearted harbinger and Essie’s compassionate relationship with her Aunt Bel as they navigate Essie’s illness together. The events of the previous book are eventually drawn into the fold of this narrative, but this latest story can easily be read as a stand-alone.
An inventive novel for readers who enjoy slightly macabre and unabashedly romantic tales.Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-64063-408-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Over 20 brief (average, about six pages) horror yarns that feature heavily motivated ghosts, plus a witch or two, doing nasty things, dripping body parts and various pieces of ick-with-teeth: in short, efficient gross-out tales that kids love and adults take care to read long after eating. These ghosts are mean and revoltingly corporeal. Steal an old lady's money and watch out! The hands burying the boys alive were ``nothing but bones!'' Then no knows ``Where Freddy Is,'' except—yuck!—his family will know where his feet are. In another piece, hands appear unattached and active, and two heads talk and hoot in the woods. Animals are featured in two tales: Old Dare the hound makes a rather compassionate return from the Great Kennel in the Sky, but Big Cat, kept in the cellar with its appreciative owner, crunches up...well, let's say the village is depopulating. Ghosts are really into revenge seemingly for eternity, like the group in ``The Wake-Up Call,'' wiped out in life because the clerk had forgotten the call; now when that clerk ``dropped out of sight,'' it seems to be only the beginning. Earrings whisper, scissors attack, a handle (of a casket) hops around, etc., etc. Old stuff, reminiscent of magazines like Weird Tales, but Brown spins a tight yarn and keeps her eye on the last (splat! eek!) image of each tale. Just the thing for the campfire when ``only a few coals glow in the dark, like eyes.''
Pub Date: Aug. 15, 1993
ISBN: 0-87483-332-9
Page Count: 176
Publisher: August House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1993
BOOK REVIEW
A teenager finds his way out from overwhelming grief in this poignant story from Hawes. Franklin takes his funny, beloved classmate Rosey Mishimi’s death in a car crash so hard that six months later he’s still mired in depression, walled off from his mother, therapist, and friends, filling his journal with present-tense memories. Then Rosey reappears, almost her old bubbly self but insubstantial, invisible to everyone else—except, perhaps, her dying Japanese grandmother. Is she a ghost, or just a figment? While he doesn’t entirely rule out the latter, Franklin is eager to have Rosey back on any terms, despite the understandable dismay of those around him. In the end, it doesn’t matter; Rosey fades away, but slowly enough to give Franklin a chance to say goodbye, to understand that she will always be with him, and to accept the fact that he still has a life to live. Hawes keeps Rosey’s exact nature ambiguous without being coy; that, along with the distinct characters and a caring supporting cast, make this a thoughtful variation on the often-explored theme of coping with loss. (Fiction. 12-15)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8027-8685-5
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Walker
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1999
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