In Nightfall by Suzanne Young

Published: 3/28/23Publisher: Delacorte PressAuthor: WebsiteInfo: Goodreads

Theo and her brother, Marco, threw the biggest party of the year. And got caught. Their punishment? Leave Arizona to spend the summer with their grandmother in the rainy beachside town of Nightfall, Oregon--population 846 souls.The small town is cute, when it's not raining, but their grandmother is superstitious and strangely antisocial. Upon their arrival she lays out the one house rule: always be home before dark. But Theo and Marco are determined to make the most of their summer, and on their first day they meet the enigmatic Minnow and her friends. Beautiful and charismatic, the girls have a magnetic pull that Theo and her brother can't resist.But Minnow and her friends are far from what they appear.And that one rule? Theo quickly realizes she should have listened to her grandmother. Because after dark, something emerges in Nightfall. And it doesn't plan to let her leave. (goodreads.com)

I had to give myself a little time before reviewing IN NIGHTFALL. I was so far into my feels with it I needed a passport to get back. I am all for Lost Boys-inspired books. It's pretty much a guarantee that I will pick it up. It's how I found the Blood Coven series by Mari Mancusi (after a referral from a friend) and MAYHEM by Estelle Laure. GIVE. IT. TO. ME. So when I saw that IN NIGHTFALL was Lost Boys-inspired, I went YES.Until I read the blurb.Why did the blurb take be aback? Because it's basically the plot of The Lost Boys. Down to moving from Phoenix to a small beach town in California, I mean Oregon. Commence rage.No, Donna! Don't! Don't judge it until you can read it! That might not be the case!So I read the first chapter preview.There was more rage.Why? Because it's the opening credits scene of The Lost Boys. Nearly to a T.THINGS AREN'T LOOKING GOOD.I'd requested the book as soon as I heard about it back in July or August. I just got the approval for it in March and I immediately started reading because I had to know.I HAD TO.And????I'll start with what I liked about it:Divorced from its source material, it's exactly the sort of YA horror I've been looking for in the current market. Not too deep, kind of kitschy, fun, spooky, underlying creepy. An all around good time. Doesn't require too much thought and gives me exactly what I was looking for. In that aspect, it nailed The Lost Boys right on the head.Unfortunately, it nailed everything else about The Lost Boys right on the script.IN NIGHTFALL isn't an homage to The Lost Boys. It's not inspired by. It IS. Young did not deviate from the plot of the movie at all. So readers, if you're familiar with The Lost Boys, you will know the entire plot of this book before even picking it up. You will know which character is which, what happens to who, every twist and turn, and how it ends. You already know how this book pans out. There aren't Lost Boys easter eggs in here. It's the whole damn rabbit. Characters, actions, scenes, character motivations, the blood-sucking Brady Bunch. It's all there.What's different about it? It takes place in Oregon and the vampires are chicks. That's about it.It's The Lost Boys without the personality of The Lost Boys. Gone is Joel Schumacher's sexiness, the dark undercurrent of the story wrapped in a pseudo-happy-go-lucky veneer, and the flash genius in the frying pan of the 80s to do something wholly unique. IN NIGHTFALL ends up being a pale, bland knock off that's disappointingly straight. Where Schumacher's movie was throbbing with queer subtext, Young's book gives mid-teens YA vibes in its heteronormativity. Of course, I can't forget the Frog brothers, I mean the gay podcasters that are the token gay comedic relief that exist to serve the main character. I've literally read better, more inventive TLB fanfic (and I've read A LOT of TLB fanfic). This book screams self insert Emerson sister fic.I was so, so hopeful that Young was going to do something different with it. Killer mermaids or sirens or selkies or something. Do something to make it actually her own story. Those were the vibes I was getting for the first, like, third of the book. NOPE. It's The Lost Boys, slightly tweaked.Who is this book supposed to be for? Because when the blurb is using comps like The Lost Boys and Buffy, are today's teens going to know what any of that is? Probably not, unless they have parents with taste. Those comps are for people my age, because this YA book isn't really being sold to teens, now is it? Says the teen librarians themselves, books like this are being written for the adults who buy them, not the teens who read them. The thing is, IN NIGHTFALL is actually a great book to fit in that space. The MC doesn't even have her license yet. This is actually a fantastic YA book FOR TEENS. But the marketing is targeting the nostalgia of the people with the bank accounts. I'm sure teen readers, especially younger teen readers, would love this book, but it has nothing to do with The Lost Boys or Buffy.It's just getting old that publishers are getting so risk averse with what they put out that they just keep regurgitating the same thing because it's safe. Young, with her impressive backlist, is as safe and as sure of a bet as one can get in publishing, which is why we're here. Her writing is fine. It's nothing to write home about, but she can string a sentence together. It gets the job done and moved me from one end of the book to the other. But this safety also guarantees that instead of a unique take on The Lost Boys, something that is genuinely a hat tip to the movie but stands on its own and speaks to a newer author's imagination and verve, we get barely conceived fanfiction that doesn't do anything with the source material except follow the movie's plot. I'll just watch the movie, thanks.PS: Where the hell does Buffy come into this? The fancy dress and vampire-staking at the end? Bit of a stretch.1.5I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Seven Faceless Saints by MK Lobb

Published: February 7, 2023Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young ReadersAuthor: WebsiteInfo: Goodreads

In the city of Ombrazia, saints and their disciples rule with terrifying and unjust power, playing favorites while the unfavored struggle to survive.After her father’s murder at the hands of the Ombrazian military, Rossana Lacertosa is willing to do whatever it takes to dismantle the corrupt system—tapping into her powers as a disciple of Patience, joining the rebellion, and facing the boy who broke her heart. As the youngest captain in the history of Palazzo security, Damian Venturi is expected to be ruthless and strong, and to serve the saints with unquestioning devotion. But three years spent fighting in a never-ending war have left him with deeper scars than he wants to admit… and a fear of confronting the girl he left behind.Now a murderer stalks Ombrazia’s citizens. As the body count climbs, the Palazzo is all too happy to look the other way—that is, until a disciple becomes the newest victim. With every lead turning into a dead end, Damian and Roz must team up to find the killer, even if it means digging up buried emotions. As they dive into the underbelly of Ombrazia, the pair will discover something more sinister—and far less holy. With darkness closing in and time running out, will they be able to save the city from an evil so powerful that it threatens to destroy everything in its path? (goodreads.com)

If SEVEN FACELESS SAINTS started off as an adult novel and the author was advised to age the characters down to YA because the book would do better there, I would not be surprised. From the erratic application of ages (the characters seem to range in age from 16 to 19, I had an ARC so I hope that was smoothed out by the time it was published, and I mean a single character, not the cast of charaters ranged), to the cadence of their language, to how the characters viewed life, this just was not a YA novel and these were not teenage characters. I know people will argue, "oh they've been through a lot and they're just really mature because they were forced to be adults at much younger ages." No. A teenage mind put through trauma is still a teenage mind. Between the jobs these characters held (although not uncommon for YA authors to put teenagers in positions they would never, ever hold), how they processed the world around them, how they spoke about their youth, how they referenced each other, and how logical they seemed to act, it all points to these characters not actually being teenagers, but older characters given younger ages. Whether it's because these were originally older characters that were aged down, or the author doesn't really have a grasp of the YA voice, I don't know.There's next to no character development for either Damien or Roz. Damian's a weiner for most of the book, finally snapping at the end. Roz was just static. She didn't change at all. I guess she might have moved a millimeter by the end of the book, but that's a stretch. She was just a standoffish, unlikable character for most of the book. On top of that, she didn't have any skin in the story. Damian, at least, was propelled by his desire to not go back to war, so that incentivized him to solve the murders. If he didn't, he was getting deployed again. Roz was just along for the ride. She was shoehorned into Damian's story because what YA novel doesn't need a complicated love interest? But she served no actual function. She was never at any real risk of anything untoward happening to her. The murders were immaterial to her except for the fact that she kept shoving herself into the investigation. She just had no reason to be there.The rebel subplot was so far away from anything going on in the primary plot that I think the author forgot about it for a chunk of the story. Because the way it just like OH YEAH THIS IS GOING ON TOO at the end made it feel very superficial. It felt like this rebel thing had to happen in order to beef up the story, but it just wasn't very well-developed and despite half the book being in Roz's POV and she's supposed to be really involved in the whole thing, there's just not a whole lot about it in the story. The entire thing is a plot device to bring the story to its necessary conclusion.The world itself was eh. Solidly mediocre. I appreciated the Italian-ness of it, but that's about it. I didn't find it particularly good or unique or engaging.Overall, there just wasn't a whole lot to really like about SEVEN FACELESS SAINTS. It doesn't really do anything unique, the world is nothing to write home about, the characters are lackluster at best, the plot struggles to keep track of itself. The author, at least, could string a sentence together, but they weren't very engaging sentences. I have been struggling with YA fantasy for YEARS at this point, considering myself in a reading rut for that genre. I've just recently come to realize it's me. For some stupid reason I keep picking up these bland, basic, European-centric YA fantasy novels thinking they're going to be something different when they're just carbon copies of each other, playing off the same tropes, the same types of characters, the same worlds. Time for me to get off the continent.1.5I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Wrath by Marcus Sedgwick

Pub Date: March 22, 2022Publisher: Barrington Stoke TeenAuthor: WebsiteInfo: Goodreads

Cassie Cotton has always been unusual, a bit different – but this only makes her more intriguing to her school friend Fitz.Cassie can hear a noise that no one else can, and she believes it’s a sound that shows the Earth is in distress, damaged by human activity that is causing climate change.When this belief leads to her being ridiculed and bullied at school, Cassie disappears. Fitz is determined to find her, but he has no idea where to start looking, or if he’ll be in time to help her ... (goodreads.com)

I've loved everything I've ever read by Marcus Sedgwick, so I was thrilled when I got approved for this ARC. His writing is usually so deep and layered and convoluted in the best possible ways. His books are a mind game that twists you up before getting to the end.WRATH was not like that at all. To the point where I was left wondering if my ARC was missing some pages or something. It's exceptionally short, much shorter than his previous work (that I've read, anyway), and the story is just . . . blah.There's no real character development for Fitz, and Cassie is the real focal point of the story but spends very little time actually on the page. The hum that keeps being alluded to just doesn't go anywhere, and it ended up being a very basic 'teen hates her homelife' story. Considering her parents, I don't blame her, but because I've read other Sedgwick books, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. It never dropped.I'm disappointed in just how bland the story is and how those weird little elements that kept getting mentioned just fell flat. They were used as teases throughout, but never amounted to anything.I read WRATH expecting a MARCUS SEDGWICK book, and all I got was a very pale comparison to the stories I'm used to. There was no real tension, Fitz was simply a tool to get through the story (Cassie's story, I might add, I think the whole thing is told from the wrong POV, IMO), and there's no payout on the underlying elements used as tension to get the reader through the story. From a formatting perspective, my ARC was a mess, so maybe there was something in the style that added to the story that I'm missing here, but I highly doubt it would add that much.I'm just so disappointed.1.5I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare

Published: August 25, 2020Publisher: HarperTeenAuthor: WebsiteInfo: Goodreads

Quinn Maybrook just wants to make it until graduation. She might not make it to morning.Quinn and her father moved to tiny, boring Kettle Springs to find a fresh start. But ever since the Baypen Corn Syrup Factory shut down, Kettle Springs has cracked in half. On one side are the adults, who are desperate to make Kettle Springs great again, and on the other are the kids, who want to have fun, make prank videos, and get out of Kettle Springs as quick as they can.Kettle Springs is caught in a battle between old and new, tradition and progress. It’s a fight that looks like it will destroy the town. Until Frendo, the Baypen mascot, a creepy clown in a pork-pie hat, goes homicidal and decides that the only way for Kettle Springs to grow back is to cull the rotten crop of kids who live there now. (goodreads.com)

***SPOILER WARNING***

I don't think I've ever described anything horror as milquetoast before, so here's a first. CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD was just all around disappointing. A story completely lacking in personality, I felt disconnected from every single character they showed, the reason for why everything was happening was lackluster at best, and it just felt like everything was going through the motions.The one thing I did like was the unapologetic deaths. I can always appreciate when no one in a story is safe. But that's about all this book had going for it.Every teenager was self-aware to the point of unbelievability. Not a single one of them read like an actual teenager. They read like an adult putting adult mindsets into teenage bodies. It came across inauthentic, especially at the weird, outdated mean girl dynamic that was shoehorned in there at the beginning. It felt very antiquated and forced.I kept reading because I wanted to see where the story was going and find out the why behind it all.It was not worth that extra reading.For how astute all of these teenagers were, no one seemed to point out that all these fools so fed up with teenagers today were the ones responsible for raising them and thus bear responsibility for how they turned out. Not a single person pointed that particular tidbit out. Plus the whole plan was really poorly thought out and executed. The villains were very sure of themselves, which I guess a lot of villains are, but people were . . . okay with their children just getting slaughtered? They're all like yeah, my kids suck. Get rid of them? It's thin. Really thin.I get the premise and the extreme it's going for, I just don't think it's very well put together. It's a slasher all right. But it's not even fun. With cardboard cutouts for characters and a barely there plot, there just wasn't a whole lot for me to like here.1.5

Katrina Hates Dead Shit by Russell Nohelty, Juan Frigeri, and Bernie Lee

Published: February 18, 2016Publisher: Wannabe Press (self)Author: WebsiteInfo: Goodreads

What would you do during the Apocalypse? How would you survive?Those are the questions that have plagued Katrina for years. All the good boys and girls were raptured up to Heaven, leaving the rest of humanity to ask a single, solitary question: “Why not me?”Hellspawn rose from Hell and rampaged across the world, eviscerating all they came across. It was bedlam, Hell on Earth. There was nothing anybody could do to stop it.Then the Hellspawn got bored and settled for a quiet life in the suburbs. They squatted in the homes of the people they once mercilessly murdered.And that’s where Katrina Hates the Dead starts. Humanity survived the rampaging demons and now has to work and live alongside them. They steal all the good jobs, and leave humanity cowering is squalor.Katrina is a non-stop thrill ride from beginning to end. She fights minotaurs, Cerebus dogs, zombies, demons, and more, as she fights across the plains of oblivion.But the book also explored the deep pain and angst of a society that was forsaken by god, decimated by Satan, and left to live in hunger.And yet humanity is strong. They persist. But everything has a breaking point, and after watching friend after friend die at the unforgiving and unjust hands of fate, Katrina’s had enough and sets out to face off with the Devil to earn back her old life. (goodreads.com)

That's a bit much for a blurb on a comic. Yeesh.KATRINA HATES DEAD SHIT is meh. It's a post-apocalyptic hellscape and the protagonist is an angry, sassy, smart-mouthed chick just trying to survive. Yawn, really. There's nothing compelling about her. I don't care about her after reading the first book. In fact I'm kind of grossed out because it looks like she was in a sexual relationship with a zombie. A jab at vampire fanatics, maybe? Don't know, but it just came off gross that she's basically screwing a rotting corpse and no one's blinking an eye at that. I imagine there's supposed to be some kind of satire here but it didn't strike with me.I think the concept is neat. Hell has risen to earth and those humans who don't die in the scourge get relegated to the lowest levels of society and basically have to beg for scraps. That's neat. Kind of Mad Max with hellspawn. But the characters just aren't that great. They're super angry, working to make them completely standoffish and unappealing. It's a dog eat dog world (probably literally) and it's everyone for themselves, but I guess I've just seen so many rehashed angry, cynical chicks in inappropriate-for-the-world tiny clothes that I can't muster up the caring for yet another one.1.5