Baron produces a novel that feels based on adult assumptions regarding teens’ use of Facebook; it will likely appeal only to...
A ghost-story wannabe for the digital age.
Jason Moreland likes alternative bands and ’80s movies, so perhaps it’s not surprising that the girls at his high school just aren’t into him. But when he gets a message back from Lacey Gray, a random Facebook friend, he discovers the girl of his dreams online. When a casual Internet search turns up memorial pages and obituaries, Jason worries Lacey might be too cool for him—literally. Jason decides to investigate Lacey’s life and death, using the messages Lacey is apparently sending from beyond the grave. Baron’s near-manic mentions of social media and technology quickly become tiresome and only serve to jar the narrative flow away from the breakneck action pace. Jason has very little personality—a bland protagonist indistinguishable from the generic Everyteen semihero. Given the numerous incidents of social media hacking in the real world, it stretches credulity that Jason accepts a paranormal explanation instead of suspecting a hijack attempt. The pages are populated by unsympathetic characters who feel as shallow as the promoted posts on a newsfeed.
Baron produces a novel that feels based on adult assumptions regarding teens’ use of Facebook; it will likely appeal only to the disconnected adult gift-giver with no sense of teen reading taste. (Horror. 12-16)Pub Date: May 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-42357-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Point Horror
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2013
Hip, steamy fun.
A small-town teen fond of taking on difficult boyfriends as "projects" acquires a taste for tougher challenges when her newest one turns into a giant bat.
"Vampires are like cockroaches. If you see one, you've got a few. If you see a few, you've got a lot." So explains Vanessa's mysterious but hunky new squeeze Jean-Paul after blowing his cover as a janitor by driving off an attacking band of preppy bloodsuckers—and then revealing that Vanessa herself is descended from a line of monster hunters, and he has been appointed her protector. Rescuing a beloved teacher from exsanguination (armed with industrial quantities of garlic powder and a shop-vac) not only proves the truth of Jean-Paul's observation but firms up Vanessa's vague career plans, too. Presented in graphic panels done in suitably gothic black and white and featuring both sharply drawn characters and plenty of snarky dialogue, this spirited standalone episode joins both its predecessors (I Love Him to Pieces and Made for Each Other) and the simultaneously publishing Under His Spell, by Marie P. Croall and illustrated by Hyeondo Park, as fine fare for Buffy fans of all...types.
Hip, steamy fun. (Graphic paranormal romance. 12-14)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7613-7078-9
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Graphic Universe
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2011
Horror with heart. (Horror. 12-15)
This spine-tingler plunges into the stuff of nightmares.
“The body was lying in a thicket,” it begins. Fourteen-year-old Maya doesn’t remember why she ran off the path in this dark forest. Two dead bodies lie on the ground, each turning its head with eyes aglow. A shadowy figure bends over a third body. Maya stumbles and screams. Her family finds her and guides her out of this terrifying forest, but when they reach their new home/business—a village hotel called the Rowan Tree—something chilling occurs: A police officer sent to investigate is the same person as the first dead body. Not a twin, not a doppelganger—the same person. Maya just knows. Fright and grisliness escalate. Someone unknown and unseen stalks Maya; a fox has an unnatural power to make her follow it; foxes are turning up disemboweled and decapitated—and not just foxes. The narration stays faithful to Maya’s third-person-limited perspective, so readers don’t know who’s good or bad any earlier than she does. Maya’s warm parents and dedicated older brother can’t shield her or the village from danger, and they become targets too. There’s nothing particularly unique or specific about Maya and her family, which works well here, as if this could happen to anyone. When clarity and answers come, they’re sad, satisfying and less supernatural than they first seemed.
Horror with heart. (Horror. 12-15)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2397-2
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2011
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