A flimsy story about vampires and chosen family.
Everything changes for Emma Hartfield after she dies, awakens as a vampire, and learns the dark history of her family.
Seventeen-year-old Emma, who was raised by her grandmother Flora, has always been a loner who has felt darkness inside her. After she’s attacked by a vampire, Emma suddenly has enhanced powers of perception and a craving for blood. Flora is oddly unsurprised by this turn of events but sets out with a promise to get more information about what’s going on. Then Cara, a different vampire, shows up and opens Emma’s eyes to the (literally) underground world of vampires and the ongoing struggle between the Immortals and the half-bloods. Emma starts developing real friendships with the vampires in the nest she joins, and they team up to rescue Flora, who has gone missing. But when the truth about her biological family comes to light, Emma will have to decide where her loyalties lie. The action-forward story combines tried-and-true vampire lore with some new twists. However, worldbuilding elements are often plopped into the story rather than being naturally woven in, and the descriptions feel too slight to make it fully engrossing. A romance subplot isn’t given enough time to be believably built up. Readers may relate to Emma’s questions surrounding family and belonging, but because so many characters are one-note, it’s hard to become truly invested. Emma is cued White; some racial diversity of secondary characters is implied.
A flimsy story about vampires and chosen family. (Paranormal. 13-18)Pub Date: May 23, 2023
ISBN: 9781643973401
Page Count: 206
Publisher: BHC Press
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
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
Heart-pounding.
A gay, transgender brujo with burgeoning powers seeks answers about his cousin’s death.
Sixteen-year-old Yadriel also wishes for acknowledgement from his community but unexpectedly finds himself entangled in the unresolved wishes of a strong-willed, good-looking spirit. He descends from a long line of brujx who have been granted magic power by Lady Death to heal the living and to guide spirits into the afterlife. Although he’s grown up surrounded by a close-knit community, Yadriel feels alone, excluded indefinitely from a sacred rite of passage because he is transgender. When he senses that his cousin Miguel has died suddenly but the family can’t locate him, Yadriel sees an opportunity to prove to everyone he’s a true brujo by solving the mystery and releasing his cousin’s lost spirit. His plan quickly falls apart, as he accidentally summons the spirit of Julian Diaz, a boy with unfinished business who died the same day as Miguel. Both the romance and mystery burn slow and hot until the climax. Stakes begin high, and the intensity only increases with a looming deadline and a constant risk that Julian might lose himself, turning maligno. The cast of characters represents a diversity of Latinx identities sharing a community in East Los Angeles. Julian is Colombian while Yadriel is Cuban and Mexican. Their romance provides joyful, ground-breaking representation for gay, transgender boys.
Heart-pounding. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-25046-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Swoon Reads/Macmillan
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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