Home » Posts tagged "YA horror" (Page 6)

Book Review: Howl by Shaun David Hutchinson

 

Howl by Shaun David Hutchinson

Simon & Schuster, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-5344-7092-7

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook ( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

 

Virgil Knox is a gay teen who has moved from Seattle to live with his grandparents in his father’s rural hometown in the South with his father while his parents resolve their divorce. Following a party, he finds himself in rags with bloody claw marks and a bite mark, certain he has been attacked by a monster but unable to remember what happened or how. He is told by multiple people it didn’t happen. Captured on video, he goes viral and receives a lot of hate and nasty jokes from other students. The only class he cares about is theater, and a student from that class, Tripp, and his cousin, Astrid are his only friends. As the cuts heal, he notices his body is changing in disturbing ways. His classmates Finn and Jarrett swing from being friendly to being cruel. Virgil is afraid there is a monster inside him trying to get out. The question is, will he become a monster or master it?

 

This is a supremely uncomfortable book to read. While there is no explicit description of rape the description and narrative around the main character’s attack is suggestive of trauma caused by sexual assault combined with gaslighting (it is unclear what actually occurred as he is blackout drunk). There’s self-harm, body dysmorphia, hazing, severe bullying and cyberbullying. The town’s treatment of Virgil is the real horror of the story.

 

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on November 26, 2022 by , Reply

Book Review: The Honeys by Ryan La Sala

Cover for The Honeys by Ryan La Sala

The Honeys by Ryan La Sala

PUSH, 2022

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1338745313

Available: Hardcover, paperback, KIndle edition, audiobook.

( Bookshop.org |   Amazon.com )

 

 

When genderfluid teen Mars Matthias’ twin sister Carikube dies violently in front of them after running away from summer camp, Mars insists on attending the camp for the rest of the summer. They agree to placement with the boys, but their real goal is to rediscover Caroline, especially through The Honeys, her girlfriends in Cabin H, which tends to the camp’s beehives.

 

Mars’ previous experience at camp involved the other boys tying them to a wooden scoreboard and setting it on fire so their experiences are mixed. Camp authorities prefer to let campers solve conflicts on their own, not great news if you can’t defend yourself. While the rest of the camp participates in mandatory activities, the Honeys do their own thing, and they invite Mars to be a part of it.

 

But the Honeys aren’t just tending bees, they are the hive– the collective mind of all the bees, seeking a queen, and being pressured by the adults around them to create umbral honey (created as it feeds on living, albeit predatory creatures (such as camp counselor Brayden), that will give them real-world power.

 

This is an interesting look at how genderfluidity and societal and parental expectations affect teens in a different environment and a genuine and authentic exploration of grief and the complicated feelings that arise when someone you have mixed feelings about dies.

 

Early in the book, a counselor points out that an aspen grove is actually a colony, with one original tree, effectively making the aspens around the camp disturbing. The whole collective hivemind, blood honey and giant honeycombs, is incredibly creepy, too. It’s one thing to know you are surrounded by interrelated creatures out in nature (nature being something you expect to encounter at summer camp), but it’s horrifying to  experience being absorbed into them against your will. Recommended for grades 9+

 

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on November 7, 2022 by , Reply

Book Review: Ruinsong by Julia Ember

Ruinsong by Julia Ember

Ruinsong by Julia Ember

Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2020

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0374313357

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition ( Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com) 

 

 

In this YA dark fantasy, Cadence is a corporeal mage whose magic comes through singing. While she comes from poverty, she is now the principal singer for the queen. Queen Elene, also originally a commoner, overthrew the previous monarchy and has forced the nobility to live in fear. Once a year they must all attend a Performing where the principal singer sings a song intended to cause pain and fear in the nobility. This is Cadence’s first year and when she sees the extraordinary pain her song is causing, she stops singing. Cadence’s disobedience leads to Ren, the queen’s torturer, murdering her dog. In return, Cadence has a tantrum that leads to the death of six people, and refuses to cooperate with the queen.

 

 

The scene of Cadence’s Performing is extremely dark and disturbing, and while we get some backstory on Elene that makes her behavior understandable, Ren and Elene’s cruelty was hard to handle.

 

 

Cadence’s mage training and social class separated her from her closest friend, Remi, who is forced to attend the performance. Remi is later arrested for going to the hospital, which is illegal for nobles, and her father is seized for treason. Elene tells Remi that if she can gain Cadence’s cooperation, she and her father can move to better quarters. Cadence is reluctant but doesn’t want Remi hurt. Despite Cadence’s monstrous actions and Remi’s position as prisoner, the two are falling in love. But Elene’s oppressive reign is about to fall to rebels, and Cadence is the one who has to decide how she will use her voice.

 

 

I like magic systems that involve music, but the magic system can’t stand alone. The character of the mage also matters. This year I have also read the YA fantasy Edgewood, which, while very different in its world building and overall plot, also has a main character who discovers she is a song mage, and she claims her agency even in the face of a cruel and capricious ruler. Cadence is passive, complicit, and easily provoked, so even though I felt sympathy for her situation, I couldn’t really cheer her on. This is supposed to be a sapphic romance inspired by Phantom of the Opera, but outside the mask wearing and the singing I didn’t see much of a connection to Phantom, and while Cadence and Remi did develop a romantic relationship, I don’t see how it could have a happy ending.

 

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on November 2, 2022 by , Reply
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