Some decent frights will keep the pages turning.
Sophie worries that she may wind up in a mental institution like her sister Nell when she starts hearing the same ghostly whispering that doomed Nell.
Was Nell crazy? Is Sophie? Or do both sisters have an ability to hear things from beyond the grave? Worse, does their ability put them in danger? Sophie’s new love interest, Evan, wants to help find out what happened to Nell when she died after escaping from the Oakside Behavioral Institute. Sophie and Evan investigate Nell’s death, meeting Adam, the former Oakside worker who helped Nell escape. Ignoring, of course, both Adam’s and Evan’s advice to stay away from Oakside, Sophie goes there anyway and becomes trapped when an unethical doctor convinces her alcoholic mother to commit her. It seems the doctor has his own reasons for getting “seers” under his control. Now Sophie must find a way to escape from Oakside on her own. For a short time, West flirts with the possibility that Sophie’s “murmurings” might be psychological rather than paranormal but drops that mystery in favor of pure suspense. The plotting is effective, including secret prowling around the institute at night, surreptitious meetings with a sympathetic ally, fun with mirrors and heart-thumping encounters. A steady pace helps to compensate for an overlong story.
Some decent frights will keep the pages turning. (Paranormal suspense. 12 & up)Pub Date: March 5, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4424-4179-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 15, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Perhaps a more genuinely enlightened protagonist would have made this debut more engaging
Audrey Rose Wadsworth, 17, would rather perform autopsies in her uncle’s dark laboratory than find a suitable husband, as is the socially acceptable rite of passage for a young, white British lady in the late 1800s.
The story immediately brings Audrey into a fractious pairing with her uncle’s young assistant, Thomas Cresswell. The two engage in predictable rounds of “I’m smarter than you are” banter, while Audrey’s older brother, Nathaniel, taunts her for being a girl out of her place. Horrific murders of prostitutes whose identities point to associations with the Wadsworth estate prompt Audrey to start her own investigation, with Thomas as her sidekick. Audrey’s narration is both ponderous and polemical, as she sees her pursuit of her goals and this investigation as part of a crusade for women. She declares that the slain aren’t merely prostitutes but “daughters and wives and mothers,” but she’s also made it a point to deny any alignment with the profiled victims: “I am not going as a prostitute. I am simply blending in.” Audrey also expresses a narrow view of her desired gender role, asserting that “I was determined to be both pretty and fierce,” as if to say that physical beauty and liking “girly” things are integral to feminism. The graphic descriptions of mutilated women don’t do much to speed the pace.
Perhaps a more genuinely enlightened protagonist would have made this debut more engaging . (Historical thriller. 15-18)Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-316-27349-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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