A perfect book for readers who don’t like their dystopian stories too dystopian.
The virus that started turning nearly everyone into zombielike monsters in Infected (2023) rages on.
This novel is based on a video game, and a video game has rules. The main characters, all anthropomorphic animals except for protagonist Ben, must fight monsters wherever they go—in a school, in a grocery store, in a laboratory—as if they’re progressing from level to level. They even use the same weapons almost every time: a Taser, a barbell, a glowing rod filled with chemicals. The monsters are enormous animals who look like football mascots. The characters are such skilled fighters that the battles are almost comforting—readers can sit back and wait for the giant boars to be knocked out. Even the black-and-white illustrations are predictable: Animal heads are circles; buildings have perfectly straight lines. Just as the tale is at its most repetitive, though, the rules suddenly change. Readers may know that the narrative can’t continue if the author kills off the main characters, but they may start to wonder if the author knows that. Crawford, it turns out, is not a cruel writer, and the book has the happiest ending a zombie story will allow. There are even a few plot contrivances to make sure every character is completely safe. Ben is drawn with thick black curly hair and skin the white of the page.
A perfect book for readers who don’t like their dystopian stories too dystopian. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2023
ISBN: 9781338848137
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
A warm play on the theme of inclusivity, with horrors more huggable than otherwise.
A sheltered young monster discovers that the world isn’t as hostile to her kind as she had been led to believe.
Readers who like their monsters cute as well as scary are in for a treat, as Davault fills her panels and montages with the (mostly) humanoid but variously horned, clawed, fanged, and multiheaded inhabitants of Mr. Halloway’s Home for Horrors. They possess expressive faces, stylishly disarranged bangs (or, as the case may be, tentacles), and distinctly childlike ways. Blue-skinned, tufty-tailed Iris has always been told by (human) Mr. Halloway that he is protecting her and her fellow creatures in his isolated manor house from being hunted down. But when she takes advantage of a rare chance to venture into nearby Dead End Springs, she gets a warm welcome—from everyone except Mathias, an orphan raised by his traumatized aunt to believe that monsters are dangerous. Some actually are, it turns out…but after the frightening dolls one horror creates sell like hotcakes to the delighted locals and Iris’ companions help to save the town from an escaped dreamon who has turned into a nightmare, even Mathias comes around. Better yet, Iris emerges with her yearning to belong to a family fulfilled by the discovery that she has really been living with one all along, and she joins her housemates in turning the mansion into a monster hotel.
A warm play on the theme of inclusivity, with horrors more huggable than otherwise. (author’s note, concept art) (Graphic fantasy. 8-11)Pub Date: July 25, 2023
ISBN: 9781665903080
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
An ambitious presentation exploring resonant themes.
This novel set in Minneapolis combines the stress of changes with a haunting.
Eleven-year-old Violet is about to enter middle school. If that wasn’t anxiety-inducing enough, her mom and stepdad announce that they will be moving. To Violet’s relief, she’ll still be in the same school district with her two best friends. The move to a larger if decrepit Victorian means that Violet and Mia, her older sister, won’t be sharing a room anymore, something Violet has mixed feelings about. Her new attic room is private, but the ugly wallpaper in a mustard-and-green vine-filled pattern is decidedly creepy. Soon after starting school, Violet begins to have nightmares about the wallpaper coming to life, and she starts to feel weak and tired. Doctors can find nothing wrong, and her best friends become skeptical, implying it’s all in her head. Meanwhile, Violet tries to navigate the strains of middle school—fitting in and changing friendships—with the ever-increasing menace of the haunted attic and its link, presented possibly as a metaphor, to her chronic illness. This storyline works pretty well, addressing the experience of invisible disabilities, which are too rarely represented in middle-grade fiction, but some readers may wish for the connection between Violet’s illness and the ghost to feature a clearer resolution. Violet and her mom are white; Violet’s stepfather is Black, and other characters bring diversity in race and sexual orientation.
An ambitious presentation exploring resonant themes. (author’s note) (Paranormal. 8-12)Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2024
ISBN: 9780062275158
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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