A flashy start dragged down by unrealistic villainy and uneconomical writing.
After killing his abusive stepfather, a teenager goes on the lam, only to find a hideous fate awaiting him.
Shaun, who has red hair that he plans to dye to avoid detection, couldn’t let his stepfather hurt his mother anymore. While fleeing to his maternal grandfather’s cabin, he meets Cass, a girl with her own familial horrors, on the grounds of a “lunatic asylum.” Despite Cass’ warnings, Shaun keeps returning, eventually getting caught up in the asylum’s heinous objectives, which will determine whether he is Redeemable. An intriguing mix of urgency and gray morality kickstarts this tale, engaging readers with questions about what lurks in the asylum and how trustworthy Shaun is as a narrator and a person. But once inside the asylum, the attempts to justify the goals and methods of its borderline-eugenicist workers and funders strip away the haunting atmosphere and expose the underdeveloped bones of the story. Persistent fatphobia, casual molestation, and an overreliance on uninformed fears of those with mental illness and developmental differences undermine any attempts to sympathize with the troubled teens. Repetition, exposition, and stop-and-start plot developments interrupt any remaining flow, causing the story to end with a thud rather than a bang. Shaun and Cass are cued white.
A flashy start dragged down by unrealistic villainy and uneconomical writing. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2023
ISBN: 9781643973555
Page Count: 288
Publisher: BHC Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
Readers will be captivated by this twisty thriller and its uncompromising protagonist.
The mother Annabel Price thought was dead returns with a story about where she’s been—but 18-year-old Bel knows she’s lying.
Ever since Rachel Price’s unexplained disappearance 16 years ago, true-crime fans have come up with plentiful theories about what happened. Bel and her family members, who are white, cobbled together lives for themselves after a jury found Bel’s father, Charlie, not guilty of murdering his wife. Beset with medical bills for his elderly father, Charlie recently agreed to participate in a documentary about the unsolved mystery. Black British filmmaker Ramsey Lee is well into the process of interviewing the Prices when his project gets an unanticipated boost after an exhausted, disheveled Rachel staggers back into town. Rachel is eager to resume her role in the family, but the inconsistencies in her accounts raise alarms for Bel. With the help of the youngest member of the filmmaking team, Bel sets out to learn what really happened. Along the way, someone else disappears, and Bel uncovers a tangle of lies that make it impossible for her to trust people she thought she knew. When things come to a head the night of her grandfather’s 85th birthday party, Bel ends up in a race for her life. The last quarter of the novel tears along at a breakneck pace before arriving at a satisfying and unexpected conclusion.
Readers will be captivated by this twisty thriller and its uncompromising protagonist. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780593374207
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
A treat for mystery readers who enjoy being kept in suspense.
Everyone believes that Salil Singh killed his girlfriend, Andrea Bell, five years ago—except Pippa Fitz-Amobi.
Pip has known and liked Sal since childhood; he’d supported her when she was being bullied in middle school. For her senior capstone project, Pip researches the disappearance of former Fairview High student Andie, last seen on April 18, 2014, by her younger sister, Becca. The original investigation concluded with most of the evidence pointing to Sal, who was found dead in the woods, apparently by suicide. Andie’s body was never recovered, and Sal was assumed by most to be guilty of abduction and murder. Unable to ignore the gaps in the case, Pip sets out to prove Sal’s innocence, beginning with interviewing his younger brother, Ravi. With his help, Pip digs deeper, unveiling unsavory facts about Andie and the real reason Sal’s friends couldn’t provide him with an alibi. But someone is watching, and Pip may be in more danger than she realizes. Pip’s sleuthing is both impressive and accessible. Online articles about the case and interview transcripts are provided throughout, and Pip’s capstone logs offer insights into her thought processes as new evidence and suspects arise. Jackson’s debut is well-executed and surprises readers with a connective web of interesting characters and motives. Pip and Andie are white, and Sal is of Indian descent.
A treat for mystery readers who enjoy being kept in suspense. (Mystery. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-9636-0
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
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