Otherworldly scares and phantom-fighting friends fuel this series opener.
High school is tough for 16-year-old Ashlyn and her friends, who wake up exhausted after spending their nights in a demonic dimension.
Ashlyn Banner would prefer to be left alone, but newcomer Aiden Clark pesters her relentlessly. They’re stuck doing a semesterlong project together, and Aiden also pressures Ashlyn to join an optional field trip to Savannah, Georgia, where they, along with a few classmates, tour a house that’s rumored to be haunted. Ashlyn at first tells herself she’s having visual and auditory hallucinations, but she discovers that the others perceive the same inexplicable phenomena she does. The teens realize that far from being a prank for a reaction video, the terrors they experience show up in the real world. Ashlyn’s sensitive hearing—she wears earplugs to muffle sounds—allows her to sense the presence of phantoms before the others. Eager to restore balance to their waking lives, the teens, who largely present white (other than twins who are cued Latine), gather data and make plans. This print edition of entries from a WEBTOON comic features anime-inspired art with bold lines and movement, but the characters are rendered with seemingly random inconsistencies and ambiguities and some backgrounds feel unfinished. The character development is light, and Aiden’s borderline stalker-ish behavior is never addressed. The creepy phantoms and high action offer horror fans a fast-paced adventure. Future installments may flesh out some of the scattered plot elements.
Otherworldly scares and phantom-fighting friends fuel this series opener. (author’s note, sketchbook) (Graphic horror. 14-18)Pub Date: June 30, 2026
ISBN: 9798217122875
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Ink Pop/Random House Graphic
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
An affecting supernatural mystery with a pair of brave protagonists.
The disappearance of a child unveils what lies hiding in the woods at the edge of a small town.
There are all sorts of stories about Picnic, Illinois, but it’s not until her toddler cousin, Madison, goes missing from her crib one night that 15-year-old Luce starts to believe them—and especially when she notices a pair of glowing, wolflike eyes through the windows of her house. To everybody’s relief, Madison is returned to her crib, seemingly safe and sound, soon after she vanished, but Luce and the child’s mother notice discomfiting differences in the 2-year-old. And yet, no one else seems to give credence to their concerns. Luce, prompted by a teacher, starts to research Picnic’s history and the many disappearances—and sudden reappearances—of baby girls, going back decades. Meanwhile, deep in the woods, Fanya, who narrates alternating chapters, tends to the baby girl and prepares for the ritual to welcome her as part of her pack when the full moon comes. As Luce’s and Fanya’s stories converge, so do past and present in Lund’s atmospheric novel. The story borrows elements from South Slavic lore about women who turn into animals to tell an affecting tale about small-town secrets, wronged people, and the bravery of two girls bent on getting to the truth in order to save lives. All characters are assumed White.
An affecting supernatural mystery with a pair of brave protagonists. (Paranormal thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-35109-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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