Welcome to Fear City

July 15, 2024
A girl and her city are both cursed. It's a sweltering summer in 1977 Manhattan, and Sylvie Stroud, a white girl whose birth mom entered into an open adoption arrangement, can see the past. Ever since the blackout of 1965 when she was 5, she's found that touching any physical material that's more than 10 years old triggers an overwhelming cascade of all the (apparently post-colonial) people who existed in that space. When Sylvie repeatedly sees a brutal murder outside her Irish dance school, though, she becomes compelled to solve the mystery of the girl's attack, which leads her to a shocking revelation. The teen also learns that her brother (who's also an adoptee), her crush, and her friends have been drawn into the danger, which encompasses both a historical town home and an abandoned mansion. Unfortunately, this story, with its belabored prose and many underdeveloped strands, suffers from a plot that spins its wheels rather than getting into the meat of the mystery. Sylvie's professed love for Irish dance never quite makes it onto the page, and too much of the story hinges on moments that are described as "too coincidental to be a coincidence." The dense thicket of 1970s references will interest teen readers who are curious about that decade, while leaving others feeling stranded. Final art not seen. Drags like an August heat wave.(Horror. 14-18)

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 1, 2024
Grades 9-12 In 1970s New York City, 17-year-old Sylvie has gotten used to seeing ghosts of the past wherever she goes. But when Sylvie is haunted by the vision of a young girl's murder, the intensity rings through her every time she passes a certain building. Sylvie has had her fair share of disturbing images, but this is different; she and her friends set out to solve the crime. As Sylvie unravels the murder, more obstacles come her way. Her brother acts strange, as does her childhood friend/crush. She keeps seeing a ghostly black dog and hearing gunshots when she goes through Hell's Kitchen. This great tale immerses readers in a New York of past and is filled with rich history and culture. Readers are dropped into a city filled with life and action, as well as the sense that something sinister lurks around every corner, driving home the "Fear City" of the title. YA horror readers will delight in a supernatural mystery full of twists, turns, and all kinds of tension.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.