Joyful and hopeful.
A skateboarder desperately wants to avoid the physical changes of young adulthood.
Pepper Mint loves skateboarding and her vampire dog, Shroom. She doesn’t love her mother’s pestering her to become a full vampire like her parents. Pepper doesn’t want to change, though she adores having strap-on wings. Human skaters falsely believe she has a physiological advantage (though she’s avoiding changing partly to avoid the increased strength that would make all her hard-won skills feel “irrelevant”). The B+ juice supplement that helps her minimize real blood consumption is classed as performance-enhancing, so she can’t compete. Instead of going full vamp at the vampire ball as her mother requested, Pepper sneaks off and befriends human waiter and art student Ana, who draws Pepper skating with her wings. Pepper’s half brother, Jeb, who’s always hustling, sees a business opportunity: turning Ana’s art into a vampire-themed skateboard brand. But the grind of the business wears Pepper down, damaging her trust in Jeb and growing closeness with Ana. Despite vast gulfs separating what they each want, the three eventually learn to support one another’s choices. Attractive panels in pale blue, pink, lavender, and white evoke the transgender flag, reinforcing the metaphor of delaying puberty to avoid becoming “crystallized” in one form. This affirming story questions and creatively redefines “coming of age” in ways that will speak to many readers. Black-haired Pepper has light skin, dark-skinned Jeb has Afro-textured hair, and Ana has medium-toned skin and light hair.
Joyful and hopeful. (Graphic paranormal. 14-18)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9781665970471
Page Count: 224
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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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