A well-paced supernatural mystery that entertains but never quite explains.
“What about Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board? Have you guys ever played that?”
Grim fates were sealed the night the popular girls of Willow High gathered for Olivia Richmond’s 16th birthday sleepover. McKenna Brady, the story’s narrator, believes the creepy levitation game is nothing more than group hypnosis, but the mysterious newcomer to their school, Violet Simmons, unnerves the partygoers with a detailed story describing Olivia’s death as she returns from shoe shopping at the mall. McKenna has recently shed glasses, braces, and 20 pounds to discover a newfound “power of being pretty” after being bullied for her appearance. It was supposed to be a fabulous junior year, but while the girls get ready for the Fall Fling dance, Olivia heads out to the mall to find a perfect pair of shoes—and meets a gruesome death on her way home. Was it just a strange coincidence? Luckily, McKenna can turn to her handsome neighbor to hold her hand during the ghostly visitations she begins to experience and to figure out the mystery before tragedy strikes again. An irreverent mashup of mean, teen-queen comedy and supernatural ghost horror story, readers looking for light, spooky fun will enjoy the pace and romance, but others may find the characters superficially flat without any salvaging wit. Most characters are assumed white; some are indeterminate.
A well-paced supernatural mystery that entertains but never quite explains. (Horror. 13-16)Pub Date: Oct. 9, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5344-4402-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
A little violent, a little supernatural, a little mysterious, a lot sentimental; fans of the trilogy won't be disappointed...
A trilogy that began in the recognizable present concludes in a post-apocalyptic dystopic England, 17 years from now.
Adam—the child conceived in tragedy in Numbers (2010)—is a father now himself, caretaker to his girlfriend Sarah's daughter Mia. Like so many other former Londoners, this young family lives in the woods, surviving by hunting after the devastating earthquake that destroyed their society. But Adam is different from everyone else in this ravaged England, because he's the wild-eyed prophet who predicted the Chaos. Adam sees the potential death date of everyone he looks at, a curse that makes him valuable to dangerous people. When a paramilitary group kidnaps Mia, Adam has no choice but to put himself in their hands. In alternating chapters, Sarah and Adam describe their experiences, first in the woods and then with their tormentors. Whom can they trust? What is the extent of Adam's power—and perhaps of Mia's? The post-apocalyptic setting has limited realism (with England's woods thick enough to support many surviving Londoners on a diet of venison), and Mia's little-girl babble tends toward the twee.
A little violent, a little supernatural, a little mysterious, a lot sentimental; fans of the trilogy won't be disappointed as this story edges toward magical thriller . (Science fiction. 13-16)Pub Date: May 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-35092-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Chicken House/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
Seventeen-year-old Will is a local in Walfang; Gretchen is "summer people," but she's Will's best friend anyway. They used...
A dreamy, hair-raising mystery in a Long Island fishing village–cum–upscale resort evokes the traditional horrors of coastal communities.
Seventeen-year-old Will is a local in Walfang; Gretchen is "summer people," but she's Will's best friend anyway. They used to be three musketeers, along with Will's brother Tim, until a year ago when Tim died in a boating accident that should have killed both boys. Now Will and Gretchen try to renew their friendship in one of the creepiest summers either can remember. Will is drawn to Asia, a beautiful stranger with "green sea glass eyes." Gretchen worries about the local mad teenager who babbles portents about “seekriegers” and sings sea shanties. A 400-year-old gold doubloon turns up in a donation box, and an antique bone recorder—the spitting image of one found on Tim's body—appears in the local antique shop. Most frightening of all, Gretchen's sleepwalking, always worrying, has gotten downright dangerous. The more Will investigates, the more he sees connections with generations-old local mysteries—and possibly, incomprehensibly, stories far older than that. Walfang is exquisitely realized (occasionally too much so; narrative flow sometimes takes a backseat to painting Walfang with not-always-necessary detail); characters are defined as much by their place in society as by their behavior.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-375-84245-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2011
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
