Messy and unsatisfying.
A group of unlikely friends exacts their revenge on an entitled lacrosse bro.
Troy Richards is a jerk. A senior on Hancock High’s lacrosse team, he seems untouchable: He’s handsome, manages to evade accountability for his numerous wrongdoings, and has been admitted to Harvard. But Troy isn’t universally loved by his classmates. Troy’s ex-best-friend and former lacrosse bro Andrew Garcia, ambitious perfectionist Sassi DeLuca, bad girl with a heart of gold Tatum Stein, and quiet freshman Naomi King all have reasons to resent him. The teens devise a series of vengeful pranks on Troy, but when he ends up dead at a senior night lock-in, any one of them may be the culprit. Balogh’s debut, set in the late 1990s, has an alluring plot with a quasi-locked-room concept but leans heavily on nostalgia and eventually collapses under its overly ambitious bloat. The narration rotates among the perspectives of Troy, Jennifer, Andrew, Sassi, Tatum, and Naomi, whose voices are difficult to distinguish. These shifting points of view are set against a jumpy timeline, further adding to the confusion, and a scattering of red herrings frustratingly leaves readers with more questions than answers. The examination of toxic masculinity and accountability is intriguing, but the characterization leans heavily on stereotypes and harmful tropes and the story reaches a disappointing conclusion. Andrew is cued Latine and white, Naomi reads Black, and other main characters present white.
Messy and unsatisfying. (glossary) (Mystery. 12-18)Pub Date: June 24, 2025
ISBN: 9780593899274
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: March 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
A troubling depiction of an unhealthy relationship.
A battered girl and an injured rugby star spark up an ill-advised romance at an Irish secondary school.
Beautiful, waiflike, 15-year-old Shannon has lived her entire life in Ballylaggin. Alternately bullied at school and beaten by her ne’er-do-well father, she’s hopeful for a fresh start at Tommen, a private school. Seventeen-year-old Johnny, who has a hair-trigger temper and a severe groin injury, is used to Dublin’s elite-level rugby but, since his family’s move to County Cork, is now stuck captaining Tommen’s middling team. When Johnny angrily kicks a ball and knocks Shannon unconscious (“a soft female groan came from her lips”), a tentative relationship is born. As the two grow closer, Johnny’s past and Shannon’s present become serious obstacles to their budding love, threatening Shannon’s safety. Shannon’s portrayal feels infantilized (“I looked down at the tiny little female under my arm”), while Johnny comes across as borderline obsessive (“I knew I shouldn’t be touching her, but how the hell could I not?”). Uneven pacing and choppy sentences lead to a sudden climax and an unsatisfyingly abrupt ending. Repetitive descriptions, abundant and misogynistic dialogue (Johnny, to his best friend: “who’s the bitch with a vagina now?”), and graphic violence also weigh down this lengthy tome (considerably trimmed down from its original, self-published length). The cast of lively, well-developed supporting characters, especially Johnny’s best friend and Shannon’s protective older brother, is a bright spot. Major characters read white.
A troubling depiction of an unhealthy relationship. (author’s note, pronunciations, glossary, song moments, playlists) (Romance. 16-18)Pub Date: Nov. 28, 2023
ISBN: 9781728299945
Page Count: 626
Publisher: Bloom Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
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
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