by Rachel Caine ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2012
Plenty of fun.
The 12th episode in the Morganville Vampires series finds the town besieged by the terrifying draug, water beings that feed on vampires.
Throughout their history, the vampires have never defeated the draug. Human Claire, the series heroine, her boyfriend Shane and her friends, Eve and her vampire fiancé Michael, will find new ways to fight, but not without cheating death. All the while the town’s leader Amelie lies dying from a draug bite. Indeed, it looks as though Morganville has had it. Although readers know that Caine won’t allow that to happen, she works the tension beautifully, keeping the cliffhangers coming. She delves into Shane’s character most deeply in this installment, after he’s captured by the draug. The eccentric vampire Myrnin, Claire’s scientist boss, stands out as the book’s most interesting and entertaining character, providing both comic relief and some nice plot turns. The romance scenes in the novel don’t rise above most other paranormal romances, and the writing relies on frequent use of italics, but the author’s imagination easily tops the average, keeping the book constantly interesting. Her suspense scenes, the heart of this series, crackle with vitality and occur frequently enough to induce white knuckles. The plot includes enough explication that new readers can orient themselves. This series continues to provide terrific action and great entertainment.
Plenty of fun. (Paranormal suspense. 12 & up)Pub Date: May 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-451-23671-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: New American Library
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
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IN THE NEWS
by Tomi Oyemakinde ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 2023
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
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by Ransom Riggs ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 7, 2011
A trilogy opener both rich and strange, if heavy at the front end.
Riggs spins a gothic tale of strangely gifted children and the monsters that pursue them from a set of eerie, old trick photographs.
The brutal murder of his grandfather and a glimpse of a man with a mouth full of tentacles prompts months of nightmares and psychotherapy for 15-year-old Jacob, followed by a visit to a remote Welsh island where, his grandfather had always claimed, there lived children who could fly, lift boulders and display like weird abilities. The stories turn out to be true—but Jacob discovers that he has unwittingly exposed the sheltered “peculiar spirits” (of which he turns out to be one) and their werefalcon protector to a murderous hollowgast and its shape-changing servant wight. The interspersed photographs—gathered at flea markets and from collectors—nearly all seem to have been created in the late 19th or early 20th centuries and generally feature stone-faced figures, mostly children, in inscrutable costumes and situations. They are seen floating in the air, posing with a disreputable-looking Santa, covered in bees, dressed in rags and kneeling on a bomb, among other surreal images. Though Jacob’s overdeveloped back story gives the tale a slow start, the pictures add an eldritch element from the early going, and along with creepy bad guys, the author tucks in suspenseful chases and splashes of gore as he goes. He also whirls a major storm, flying bullets and a time loop into a wild climax that leaves Jacob poised for the sequel.
A trilogy opener both rich and strange, if heavy at the front end. (Horror/fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: June 7, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-59474-476-1
Page Count: 234
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2014
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