Strong on action and punctuated with moments of sharply felt terror.
Twelve-year-old Jack “Nim” Nottingham, a rootless foundling, braves the terrors of the London Blitz to take on an ancient, soul-eating shadow.
In his debut, Black conjures a properly terrifying night monster that attracts crawly insects, reptiles, and arachnids in droves and drops like a gooey shroud from above to leave gross boils on its gradually dying victims. Having inadvertently released it in the course of a foraging expedition in a bombed-out London mansion and seen its effect on a swelling number of the stricken, including his beloved dog, Winnie, orphanage escapee Nim desperately sets out to destroy the creature. The author anchors his tale in Nim’s inner journey from stubbornly solitary lone wolf to eventually finding a home amid a circle of friends and allies. Though the Blitz itself remains largely a background threat and isn’t developed to its full potential as a setting, readers will enjoy the focus on the multiple frantic chases and pursuits through hidden tunnels and shattered buildings, as well as developing hints of the beast’s links to historical people and events, which turn out to play crucial roles in the tense climax. The cast, mostly composed of gangs of orphaned children, reads as white.
Strong on action and punctuated with moments of sharply felt terror. (map, author’s note) (Horror. 10-13)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9780593698068
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
Compulsively readable; morally uncomfortable.
Six New Jersey 12-year-olds separated by decades race to ensure the “good guys” win World War II in this middle-grade work by the author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and her brother, a children's author and journalist.
It all starts with a ham radio that Alice, Lawrence, and Artie fool around with in 1944 and Henry, Frances, and Lukas find in 2023. It’s late April, and the 1944 kids worry about loved ones in combat, while the 2023 kids study the war in school. When, impossibly, the radio allows the kids to communicate across time, it doesn’t take long before they share information that changes history. Can the two sets of kids work across a 79-year divide to prevent the U.S.A. from becoming the Nazi-controlled dystopia of Westfallen? This propulsive thriller includes well-paced cuts between times that keep the pages turning. Like most people in their small New Jersey town, Alice, Artie, and Frances are white. In 1944, Lawrence, who’s Black, endures bigotry; in the U.S.A. of 2023, Henry’s biracial (white and Black) identity and Lukas’ Jewish one are unremarkable, but in Westfallen, Henry’s a “mischling” doing “work-learning,” and Lukas is a menial laborer. Alice’s and Henry’s dual first-person narration zooms in on the adventure, but readers who pull back may find themselves deeply uneasy with the summary consideration paid to the real-life fates of European Jews and disabled people. The cliffhanger ending will have them hoping for more thoughtful treatment in sequels to come.
Compulsively readable; morally uncomfortable. (Science fiction/thriller. 10-13)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2024
ISBN: 9781665950817
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
A heartily satisfying string of entertaining near-catastrophes, replete with narrow squeaks and spectral howls.
Three young ghost trappers take on deadly wraiths and solve an old murder case in the bargain to kick off Stroud’s new post-Bartimaeus series.
Narrator Lucy Carlyle hopes to put her unusual sensitivity to supernatural sounds to good use by joining Lockwood & Co.—one of several firms that have risen to cope with the serious ghost Problem that has afflicted England in recent years. As its third member, she teams with glib, ambitious Anthony Lockwood and slovenly-but-capable scholar George Cubbins to entrap malign spirits for hire. The work is fraught with peril, not only because a ghost’s merest touch is generally fatal, but also, as it turns out, as none of the three is particularly good at careful planning and preparation. All are, however, resourceful and quick on their feet, which stands them in good stead when they inadvertently set fire to a house while discovering a murder victim’s desiccated corpse. It comes in handy again when they later rashly agree to clear Combe Carey Hall, renowned for centuries of sudden deaths and regarded as one of England’s most haunted manors. Despite being well-stocked with scream-worthy ghastlies, this lively opener makes a light alternative for readers who find the likes of Joseph Delaney’s Last Apprentice series too grim and creepy for comfort.
A heartily satisfying string of entertaining near-catastrophes, replete with narrow squeaks and spectral howls. (Ghost adventure. 11-13)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4231-6491-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
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