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
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
Lush, angsty, queer horror.
When the monsters they imagine come to life, two boys fight for their lives—and each other.
Andrew Perrault, who’s from Australia, writes beautiful, macabre fairy tales. His roommate at his American boarding school, Wickwood Academy, is talented artist Thomas Rye, who brings his stories to vivid life in paint and charcoal. Andrew’s twin sister, Dove, is all but ignoring him, so he has plenty of time to focus on Thomas’ increasingly odd behavior. Thomas’ parents disappeared just before the new school year started, and Andrew noticed blood on his roommate’s sleeve on their first day back. When he follows Thomas into the forest one night, Andrew discovers him fighting one of the monsters that Thomas has drawn from these stories. The boys soon find themselves coping with vicious bullies by day and fighting monsters by night. At the same time, Andrew struggles to reconcile his feelings for Thomas with his growing awareness of his own asexuality. But when the sinister Antler King breaches Wickwood’s walls, Andrew realizes that he and Thomas may not survive their own creations. This novel, written in rich, extravagant prose, features frank portrayals of disordered eating, self-harm, bullying, and mental illness. Andrew grapples realistically with his sexual identity, and the story has ample genuinely creepy moments with the monsters. Andrew, Thomas, and Dove are white.
Lush, angsty, queer horror. (content warning) (Horror. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2024
ISBN: 9781250895660
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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