A fresh-air alternative to claustrophobic dystopias.
Two teens thousands of miles apart discover they’re haunted by the same desperate ghost.
On a family visit to a Welsh seaside village, Londoner Gareth discovers the lonely, dead child when his cellphone falls into an ancient burial chamber; she returns it to him only after securing his promise to visit her. In California, Olwen’s great-grandmother, Gee Gee, expresses her dying wish to return to that same Welsh village, her hometown. Olwen—known as Wyn—senses that the beloved Gee Gee she thought she knew is a façade hiding a mystery, one tied to her own haunting. After Gareth finds Wyn’s blog, the teens meet online and realize that each has been contacted by a ghostly girl whose name Wyn bears and whose urgent need is draining them. Her voice and image turn up on Gareth’s phone; Wyn’s dreams are more complex, interwoven with Gee Gee, the child and a strange young man. When Wyn’s family brings Gee Gee to her village and Gareth arranges a visit to his great-grandfather there, the teens meet and—exhausted and disoriented by their intensifying visitations—struggle to solve the riddle and free themselves before Gee Gee’s life ends. Though a reluctance to put characters in harm’s way combines with excessive foreshadowing to rob the plot of suspense, there’s an old-fashioned charm to this gently meandering tale that can’t be denied.
A fresh-air alternative to claustrophobic dystopias. (Ghost story. 11-15)Pub Date: June 8, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7387-4058-4
Page Count: 360
Publisher: Flux
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Not much forward momentum but a tasty array of chills, thrills, and chortles.
The victory of Jacob and his fellow peculiars over the previous episode’s wights and hollowgasts turns out to be only one move in a larger game as Riggs (Tales of the Peculiar, 2016, etc.) shifts the scene to America.
Reading largely as a setup for a new (if not exactly original) story arc, the tale commences just after Jacob’s timely rescue from his decidedly hostile parents. Following aimless visits back to newly liberated Devil’s Acre and perfunctory normalling lessons for his magically talented friends, Jacob eventually sets out on a road trip to find and recruit Noor, a powerful but imperiled young peculiar of Asian Indian ancestry. Along the way he encounters a semilawless patchwork of peculiar gangs, syndicates, and isolated small communities—many at loggerheads, some in the midst of negotiating a tentative alliance with the Ymbryne Council, but all threatened by the shadowy Organization. The by-now-tangled skein of rivalries, romantic troubles, and family issues continues to ravel amid bursts of savage violence and low comedy (“I had never seen an invisible person throw up before,” Jacob writes, “and it was something I won’t soon forget”). A fresh set of found snapshots serves, as before, to add an eldritch atmosphere to each set of incidents. The cast defaults to white but includes several people of color with active roles.
Not much forward momentum but a tasty array of chills, thrills, and chortles. (Horror/Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7352-3214-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Those obsessed with paranormals won't dislike anything here, but everyone else should give it a miss
Boy meets Girl. Boy turns out to have a deep—nay, otherworldly—connection to Girl despite being the loneliest member of a family of immortal, sexy, good-hearted monsters.
Newly-orphaned Brooklynite Kate Mercier is now living in Paris with her grandparents and sister. She's grateful for anything that breaks the constant tyranny of her depression, even the weird obsession she's developing with Vincent, a hot Parisian she's seen in her favorite café. Vincent is equally obsessed with Kate, but after a few dates his secret is revealed: Vincent is a revenant, driven by some mystical force to give his life to save others again and again, constantly reborn as an 18 year old with rippling "rock-hard abdominal muscles." Along with his revenant family (one father figure, several extremely sexy pseudo-brothers and a teenage girl to be Kate's friend), he rescues at-risk Parisians while fighting off the revenant's evil counterparts among the undead. Kate and Vincent are, of course, drawn to each other, miserable with despair when apart. When they are together, it takes all Vincent's willpower not to molest his beloved; readers of Twilight and its ilk know the drill. But wait! Evil is afoot, and perhaps it will spice up their love life!
Those obsessed with paranormals won't dislike anything here, but everyone else should give it a miss . (Paranormal romance. 12-14)Pub Date: May 10, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-200401-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
