In Matthews’ debut supernatural YA novel, a teenage Southern belle attempts to fit into a new environment—but she still stands out for one menacing soul.
After her mother and father die in a gruesome car accident, Edie St. John goes to live with her uncle Landon, a famous horror novelist in the small town of Grimsby. Driving to her first day of school, she gets lost and pulls over at a mansion in the woods. After seeing a figure walking past one of the windows, she knocks and asks for help; no one answers, so Edie lets herself in. Suddenly, she sees flashes and hears noises that seem to be hallucinations, and the door locks behind her. After a wicked, disembodied voice harasses her, she frantically tries to escape the manor, until the front door unlocks on its own. A dreamy classmate named Mason, sent by the principal, escorts Edie to school, and sparks fly between them. But although Edie is free from the mansion, it later becomes clear that she’s also freed something else. During her first day of classes, Edie’s English instructor seemingly has a panic attack, and her male psychology instructor seems shamelessly enamored of her. She soon realizes that a spirit from the estate is influencing the people around her. But just as Edie begins to make this connection, the spirit shows himself as a handsome, well-groomed young man. It turns out that he attached himself to Edie as she left the mansion and has since been watching her every move. Thanks to this fact, he’s becoming stronger and more corporeal. As his infatuation grows, so does the potential danger facing Edie’s peers, including her darling Mason. The plot begins well, with the potential for compelling twists. However, it soon escalates into chaos, particularly as ghosts’ restrictions and limitations seem like afterthoughts. Certain spirits cannot communicate with others, for example, or are restricted to specific areas, which often comes off as more convenient than mysterious. Meanwhile, the narrative unnecessarily repeats some details, such as the fact that Edie is always cold. Such repetitions seem amateurish, as they hinder readers’ imaginations.
An occasionally endearing but largely unfocused YA ghost story.
Pub Date: April 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-1499285772
Page Count: 582
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
What if the market was closed when you wanted to bake a pie? You could embark for Europe, learn Italian en route, and pick up some semolina wheat in Italy, an egg in France, kurundu bark for cinnamon in Sri Lanka, and an entire cow in England (butter) before coming home via Jamaica (sugar) and Vermont (apples). The expertly designed illustrations in which a dark-haired lass journeys by various means to these interesting places to get her groceries are lovely and lively, and the narrative, too, travels at a spritely pace. The journey is neither quite logical enough to be truly informative nor quite bizarre enough to be satisfyingly silly, while the rich, sweet recipe that's appended will take some adult assistance. Still, fun. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: May 2, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-83705-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1994
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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