Readers who enjoy folkloric fiction will find this Micronesian-based story highly entertaining.
Aleja’s novel fuses psychological horror, paranormal fantasy, and CHamoru folklore to follow a Guam family’s battle with malevolent spirits.
The people of Guam have a rich history and culture, one influenced by wisdom-filled stories extolling the physical and spiritual benefits of being connected to the earth, as well as revering and employing insights passed down from ancestors. But much of that knowledge has been lost, and when a young pregnant woman named Joleen finds herself haunted by an evil taotaomo’na (spirit of the land), she and her widowed mother, Annie, turn to unconventional methods for guidance. Contacting a suruhåna (a traditional healer) doesn’t help, and Joleen dies, but not before giving birth to a son named Mateo. Annie, a devout Catholic who also believes in the old ways, realizes her grandson possesses special abilities and vows to protect him from the evil spirits. As Mateo grows up, he discovers that his innate talents are those of a traditional shaman—and that those talents are coveted by some of the most powerful and nightmarish spirits on the island. The exploration of the CHamoru belief system and its legends are an obvious strength of Aleja’s novel, but so too are the deep character development and relationship dynamics, like the loving bond between Mateo and his grandmother. The impressively high level of tension throughout the story is also noteworthy, particularly the adept use of psychological horror elements to keep readers on the edge of their seats. In one scene, a humble cupboard door is rendered terrifying: “Mateo spun around, his pulse thundering in his ears. The cupboard door, which he distinctly remembered closing earlier, was now wide open, its contents perfectly still. A wave of nausea swept over him as he stepped toward the door, his body screaming at him to leave.”
Readers who enjoy folkloric fiction will find this Micronesian-based story highly entertaining.Pub Date: March 3, 2025
ISBN: 9798990039056
Page Count: 290
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Trust no one in this over-the-top tale of deception and revenge.
Dead bodies turn up in the first sentence of the prologue in McFadden’s latest domestic thriller.
The mystery of who died is at the pulsating heart of this propulsive tale. As Chapter 1 begins, Naomi arrives home to find the locks changed on the front door of the gorgeous home she shares with her husband, Jeremy, and their 5-year-old son, Teddy. Jeremy steps out the front door and convinces Naomi to move out while he has their home renovated, a plan Naomi knows nothing about. It’s all a ruse, though, as the next day Jeremy tells her he wants a divorce. Naomi is shellshocked and soon discovers that Jeremy is having an affair with Veronica, a beautiful younger woman. What seems at first like a stereotypical story about a man who leaves his wife turns into something else when Naomi decides she’ll do anything to get Veronica away from Jeremy and Teddy, and Veronica decides to fight for what she thinks she deserves. Fans of stalker novels will cringe with delight as creepy things start to happen. Teddy’s stuffed elephant, a gift from Veronica, is found impaled on a kitchen knife; Naomi suspects Jeremy is gaslighting her and that Veronica tried to poison her. A weird confrontation among Jeremy, Veronica, and Naomi at Teddy’s birthday party, to which Naomi shows up uninvited, is priceless. There are three main characters, and any or all of them may be unreliable narrators. Packing the plot with dark, gasp-inducing twists, McFadden outdoes herself in a story about how highly emotional people engage in risky behavior to get what they want—but in this novel, for better or worse, not everyone will survive.
Trust no one in this over-the-top tale of deception and revenge.Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249631
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
BOOK TO SCREEN
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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