Haunting and spellbinding.
When a religious cult threatens everything they know, former friends Wil’s and Elwood’s purposes collide.
In the small Michigan town of Pine Point, 18-year-old Wilhelmina Greene’s mom has been missing for a year, and everyone, including the local police, thinks she left voluntarily. Wil, on the other hand, is certain that her ex–best friend, Elwood; his father, local preacher Pastor Clarke; and Elwood’s ultrareligious family and church are involved. Channeling her journalist mother’s investigative skills, Wil refuses to give up, determined to find answers on her own. Meanwhile, 17-year-old Elwood has done his best to follow the path his parents have laid out for him even though it meant losing Wil’s friendship. When he finds out that his parents have never truly loved him and in fact have been planning to sacrifice him for their cause, he flees, joining forces with Wil and their friends to find answers. Together, Wil and Elwood learn that everything they thought they knew was a lie, and they are in more danger than they could have imagined. Arndt’s sparkling prose deftly explores the complicated nature of loyalty and religion against the lush background of the forests of the Upper Peninsula. The mythology of the town and its founders is compelling and convincing, setting up the history for the story at hand. Main characters are cued White.
Haunting and spellbinding. (Horror. 13-18)Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2023
ISBN: 9780593526279
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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
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