Inconsistent in tone, with lackluster worldbuilding.
Reeling from a recent family trauma, a teen finds a chosen family in a coven of witches.
Freshman Elliot and his mother, the new vice principal at his Catholic high school, are recent transplants to Los Angeles. Before the move, Elliot’s father died by suicide, an event that was followed by Elliot’s own suicide attempt. On Elliot’s first day at school, a group of students sees evidence of his inherent ability with magic and asks him to join their coven. At an initiation ritual that night, the coven members identify their goals, apparently bringing them about through magical means. For example, sweet Rachel becomes a popular kid after wishing to be cool, and Elliot becomes clairvoyant after wishing to never be taken by surprise again. Meanwhile, an unidentified hooded figure occasionally appears and commands a demonic creature to kill people. This facet of the book’s worldbuilding is unexplained, and these extremely violent scenes feel misplaced in a story that’s otherwise light on horror. The full-color illustrations are cinematic in scope. Most members of the coven are queer, and the group is ethnically diverse; Elliot is white. Delightful queer chosen-family themes aside, the descriptions and portrayals of sexuality, gender identity, and gender expression are in many cases stereotypical or inaccurate.
Inconsistent in tone, with lackluster worldbuilding. (author’s note, character designs, volume 2 preview) (Graphic paranormal. 15-18)Pub Date: May 14, 2024
ISBN: 9781681160849
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Legendary Comics YA
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
A fast-paced supernatural mystery ideal for fans of horror games.
The game knows her darkest secret—and it might be trying to kill her.
Wracked with guilt over her little sister’s recent death, 17-year-old Vivian Reynolds leaps at the opportunity to play an online escape room horror game called Locked In that was anonymously emailed to her. In hopes that her return to streaming will help financially support her parents, Viv starts a practice playthrough by herself to test the waters. When the game asks her to confess a secret, Viv admits that she killed her sister. Uncanny events follow in the aftermath of her surreptitious confession, resulting in her parents and peers losing trust in her. With the help of Ash, a fellow social outcast, Viv becomes sure that a demonic clone is trying to ruin her life by committing heinous acts in her name. Told in Viv’s first-person perspective, the story has an eeriness that’s complemented by quippy jokes and gaming references. The plot twists are numerous and satisfying, helping to build suspense as readers try to figure out the mystery. Classic horror imagery is paired with a flawed protagonist who reckons with the guilt and grief caused by her habit of lying and her obsession with streaming. Viv’s mom is white, and her dad is Japanese American; Ash reads white.
A fast-paced supernatural mystery ideal for fans of horror games. (content warning) (Horror. 15-18)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2024
ISBN: 9798890030764
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Page Street
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
Intriguing but convoluted and underdeveloped.
When the veil between life and death is torn, threatening everything and everyone she loves, Célie is determined to take “till death do us part” as a challenge, her role as Bride of Death notwithstanding, in this sequel to The Scarlet Veil (2023).
Célie’s life has very abruptly gone to hell in a handbasket. She’s been turned into a vampire and abandoned by the mysterious and infuriatingly alluring man who turned her. Fearful of hurting her friends, she can’t eat or sleep, and she loathes herself and what she’s become. Célie is also being haunted by her late sister, Filippa. The dead are walking, something is going wrong with magic, and Death himself has manifested in corporeal form to claim his due. Only Célie can mend what’s been broken—but at what cost? This sequel picks up without much time spent reorienting readers to plot points or character dynamics. As in the first book, the drama spools on for too long, only properly picking up momentum about two-thirds of the way through the book. What starts as a slow-burn romance soon becomes quite the opposite, and although the stakes are generally higher than before and there are some very touching moments, the narrative never quite comes together in a satisfying way, and the worldbuilding and characters feel shallow and lack sufficient context. Most characters are light-skinned.
Intriguing but convoluted and underdeveloped. (Paranormal. 16-18)Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780063258808
Page Count: 624
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
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