Expertly crafted, with most of the gory details left to the imagination.
In graphic versions of three previously published episodes, the “extreme family fun” offered at Freddy Fazbear’s Mega Pizzaplex runs to dismemberment and attacks by blob monsters.
Graphic in format but not—disappointingly, perhaps, to some readers—visual content, the tales feature mostly offstage carnage and rely heavily for their impact on suggestion and sound effects. In “Under Construction,” Maya has a Sweet 16 party with friends. They venture into in an augmented reality arcade that’s not quite ready for visitors, which she leaves (or so she thinks), only to find that people around her are dying of cancer and being replaced by hordes of weirdly blobby, pinkish, veined claylike figures. In the other stories, robots become gruesomely insistent on helping two young visitors lost in a maze, and a Pizzaplex workman named Grady gets caught in a series of looping tunnels meant for small children. The horrific consequences are visible as largely discreet splashes of gore. Maya’s extensive grief and a childhood experience of being locked in a closet that left Grady deeply cleithrophobic stir in some psychodrama, but the main appeal here can be summed up by the closing panel, which contains nothing but a bone-crunching “SPLURCH.” The art, though drawn and colored by a different set of artists for each story, has a consistent look throughout, and features a human cast that presents as racially diverse.
Expertly crafted, with most of the gory details left to the imagination. (Graphic horror. 12-16)Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781546128434
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: today
BOOK REVIEW
An eerie thriller reminiscent of summer horror movies that will keep readers on edge.
Two teens with a dark secret return to their old summer camp.
Childhood friends Esme and Kayla can’t wait to return to Camp Pine Lake as counselors-in-training, ready to try everything they couldn’t do when they were younger: find cute boys, stay up late, and sneak out after hours. Even Andy, their straight-laced supervisor, can’t dampen their excitement, especially after they meet the crushworthy Olly and Jake. An intuitive 17-year-old, Esme is ready to jump in and teach her cute little campers. But when a threatening message appears, Esme and Kayla realize the secret they’ve kept hidden for nearly a decade is no longer safe. Paranoia and fear soon cause Esme and Kayla to revisit their ominous secret and realize that nobody in the camp can be trusted. The slow buildup of suspense and the use of classic horror elements contrast with lighthearted camp activities, bonding with new friends, and budding romance. Similarly, Esme’s first-person point of view allows for increased tension and action as well as offering insight into her emotional and mental well-being. Discussions of adulthood, trauma, and recovery are subtle and realistic, but acts of sexism and machismo aren’t fully analyzed. While the strong buildup of action comes late, it leads to a shockingly satisfying finale. Major characters are White.
An eerie thriller reminiscent of summer horror movies that will keep readers on edge. (Thriller. 12-16)Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12497-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Dec. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli.
For two teenagers, a small town’s annual cautionary ritual becomes both a life- and a death-changing experience.
On the second Wednesday in June, every eighth grader in Amber Springs, Pennsylvania, gets a black shirt, the name and picture of a teen killed the previous year through reckless behavior—and the silent treatment from everyone in town. Like many of his classmates, shy, self-conscious Robbie “Worm” Tarnauer has been looking forward to Dead Wed as a day for cutting loose rather than sober reflection…until he finds himself talking to a strange girl or, as she would have it, “spectral maiden,” only he can see or touch. Becca Finch is as surprised and confused as Worm, only remembering losing control of her car on an icy slope that past Christmas Eve. But being (or having been, anyway) a more outgoing sort, she sees their encounter as a sign that she’s got a mission. What follows, in a long conversational ramble through town and beyond, is a day at once ordinary yet rich in discovery and self-discovery—not just for Worm, but for Becca too, with a climactic twist that leaves both ready, or readier, for whatever may come next. Spinelli shines at setting a tongue-in-cheek tone for a tale with serious underpinnings, and as in Stargirl (2000), readers will be swept into the relationship that develops between this adolescent odd couple. Characters follow a White default.
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli. (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-30667-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
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