A haunting and twisted, if unevenly developed, tale that explores the line between safety and control.
A teen investigates the bloodstained secrets of a town built on ritual, silence, and monsters.
Wispy Falls promises safety—but a 17-year-old vlogger, a black-haired, brown-eyed boy who goes by Storymancer, knows that’s a lie. His 7-year-old brother, Lee, is among those who vanished in the woods. After someone finds a body in the woods, LightParticle121, a conspiracy message board user, sends Storymancer a news clip from a local station that strangely doesn’t appear in the news archives. Storymancer begins corresponding with LightParticle121, who claims that all the missing were sick (Lee had cancer, but few people know that). Even as their exchanges grow increasingly unhinged, Storymancer pursues this lead, documenting his investigation into the bloodmoon ritual, which the authorities claim will protect citizens against the cryptids in the woods. But the deeper Storymancer digs, the more he questions the ritual—and suspects that the Penumbra Institution, which controls the town’s medical care, may be hiding something far more sinister. Told through video and radio show transcripts, emails, and more, the found footage–style narration creates a chilling realism. Chupeco demonstrates a keen understanding of how misinformation spreads and digital natives process fragmented information, though the structure works against the story’s emotional core. The town’s mythology and the cryptid classifications are well-crafted, but the pacing sags under the weight of the plot’s complexity and exposition-heavy forum posts.
A haunting and twisted, if unevenly developed, tale that explores the line between safety and control. (Horror. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781728255941
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
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
This high-suspense thriller hits all the marks with its slow reveal and cross-genre appeal.
Creepy supernatural executioners roam the woods at night in Dennard’s latest.
On the cusp of the year 2000, Freddie Gellar, a high school senior and self-proclaimed Answer Finder, untangles a plot worthy of a professional detective. After she reports hearing screaming in the woods and accidentally gets students from rival school Fortin Prep arrested, Freddie becomes a member of the Berm High Prank Squad. Suddenly, popular classmates—like the attractive Kyle Friedman and class president Laina Steward—notice her. With her best friend, Divya Srivastava, by her side, Freddie navigates teen life and her unexpected physical attraction to Theo Porter, who’s Fortin’s prank master. Meanwhile, grisly goings-on ensue as murdered bodies with deep ties to village lore appear in the woods. Freddie, a fan of The X-Files, channels her inner Scully and Mulder to solve the mystery—but as she seeks answers, she finds more than she bargained for. Allusions to the ’90s, including Nokia phones and boy bands, realistically frame the gory content within the setting. Sensual scenes add romantic appeal, and Freddie’s narrative voice echoes the emotionally intense refrains of adolescence as she navigates coming-of-age themes. Freddie and Theo are cued white, and the supporting cast contains broad ethnic diversity as well as queer representation.
This high-suspense thriller hits all the marks with its slow reveal and cross-genre appeal. (map) (Supernatural thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9781250334664
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Tor Teen
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
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