A haunting and twisted, if unevenly developed, tale that explores the line between safety and control.
A teen investigates the bloodstained secrets of a town built on ritual, silence, and monsters.
Wispy Falls promises safety—but a 17-year-old vlogger, a black-haired, brown-eyed boy who goes by Storymancer, knows that’s a lie. His 7-year-old brother, Lee, is among those who vanished in the woods. After someone finds a body in the woods, LightParticle121, a conspiracy message board user, sends Storymancer a news clip from a local station that strangely doesn’t appear in the news archives. Storymancer begins corresponding with LightParticle121, who claims that all the missing were sick (Lee had cancer, but few people know that). Even as their exchanges grow increasingly unhinged, Storymancer pursues this lead, documenting his investigation into the bloodmoon ritual, which the authorities claim will protect citizens against the cryptids in the woods. But the deeper Storymancer digs, the more he questions the ritual—and suspects that the Penumbra Institution, which controls the town’s medical care, may be hiding something far more sinister. Told through video and radio show transcripts, emails, and more, the found footage–style narration creates a chilling realism. Chupeco demonstrates a keen understanding of how misinformation spreads and digital natives process fragmented information, though the structure works against the story’s emotional core. The town’s mythology and the cryptid classifications are well-crafted, but the pacing sags under the weight of the plot’s complexity and exposition-heavy forum posts.
A haunting and twisted, if unevenly developed, tale that explores the line between safety and control. (Horror. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781728255941
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
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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