Charmingly fun.
Three friends search for love on an auspicious Halloween night.
Legend says that every hundred years, magic awakens in the town of Moon Ridge, and this Halloween marks 400 years since the town’s founding. For Apollonia “Onny” Diamante, this is the perfect time to use her late grandmother Lola’s last gift: her notebook. It contains a recipe for a love potion that awakens the possibility of love. Onny hopes it’ll bring her together with her crush, Alexander Abernathy—if only she could stop getting sidetracked by her skeptic of a lab partner, Byron Frost. Meanwhile, her best friends, gifted with shares of Lola’s potion, are a little less sure of its magical efficacy. For shy Ash Lee, this night might spur him to make a bold move on his crush, Cassidy Rivera. Burned by an ex and a believer only in the concrete and rational, love is not on True Tandon’s agenda, but a meet-cute with uber-friendly Orion Parker, a paranormal phenomenon enthusiast, may test her (dis)beliefs. The authors imbue their characters with genuineness that makes the narration engaging and the romances a delight. The three intertwined stories, each following one member of the trio, play with beloved romantic tropes. By the end of the night, each protagonist has met their match and, more importantly, found confidence and a new outlook. Onny is Filipina American; Ash is cued as Chinese American, and True is biracial, with German and Indian heritage.
Charmingly fun. (Romance. 12-18)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-79723-0
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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
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