Promising spookiness that ultimately falls flat.
On Halloween weekend, four friends embark on a nightmarish adventure at an abandoned horror theme park on an island near the Dominican Republic.
Years ago, the theme park Malicia became the infamous site of a massacre that claimed many lives, including those of Raymundo’s mother and older brother. Unbeknownst to those who accompany him to the derelict spot, Ray is planning a ritual to summon his dead brother. Anxiety-ridden Joaquin dreads the trip for another reason: He’s desperate to save his own soul from the demon El Bacá, but in order to do so, he must sacrifice his best friend, Ray, on Halloween night—despite the feelings he has for him. Isabella, meanwhile, comes to the island ready to exploit her friends and the theme park’s blood-soaked history for a documentary she hopes will secure her college dreams and filmmaking future. Aspiring pre-med student Sofia joins in just to lend support—but she loses hold of herself shortly after their arrival. Then a hurricane hits the island, and death follows. The friends plunge deep into Malicia’s darkness while a hostile evil lurks among the shadows. The author skillfully weaves a tale out of the leads’ dueling perspectives, slipping in revelations and motivations to key up the twists and turns with aplomb. Heavy on the gore, the story includes a nice mix of Dominican folklore elements before lurching toward an increasingly nonsensical ending and an unearned emotional payoff.
Promising spookiness that ultimately falls flat. (map) (Horror. 14-18)Pub Date: June 4, 2024
ISBN: 9781645677871
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Page Street
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Chilling yet romantic; explores the complexities of death, love, and grief.
A teenage mortician’s assistant discovers that the dead don’t always stay that way.
Seventeen-year-old Meka is no stranger to death, having grown up working in her parents’ Ithaca, New York, funeral home. Though the morbidity of her job unsettles some of her friends, Meka is passionate about her family’s business, and she has the full support of her boyfriend, Noah. But despite her comfort with death, she’s haunted by a recurring nightmare about her mother dying—a dream she desperately hopes won’t come true. When Meka’s life is rocked by a completely unexpected tragedy, strange things begin happening: She sees shadowy figures lurking, a mysterious gift arrives on her doorstep, and fragments of a buried memory resurface. As Meka slowly pieces together the truth, what she finds forces her to question everything she knows about life and death—and her own family. Bayron crafts a page-turning, atmospheric homage to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, balancing unnerving horror with tender romance. Teens familiar with the original novel will enjoy the modern twist, and the layered mystery will also appeal to reluctant readers and those without prior knowledge of Shelley’s work. The foreboding narrative starts out at a slower pace and builds to an action-packed conclusion, though readers may be left with some unanswered questions. Meka and her family are cued as Black.
Chilling yet romantic; explores the complexities of death, love, and grief. (Horror. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9781547615865
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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