Review by Booklist Review
Here's a pleaser for anyone fond of finding ghosts, gay teens, gay ghosts, unsolved murder, excellent snarky banter, creepy horror, rib-tickling satire, plot twists, tight friendships, and/or happy endings in their fiction. Thirteen-year-old Aidan is sure he's going to be ostracized after a mean girl steals and posts the romantasy he's secretly composed, featuring a certain close friend and himself. Instead, he receives acceptance and support from all directions, including the beyond. In fact, one of his most avid literary fans, aptly named Gabby, turns out to be the ghost of a murdered teen. Unfortunately, she not only haunts an eerie old mansion but shares it with a specter with bad intentions and a face on the back of her head that looks a lot like Aidan's. Happily, while trying to stay out of the latter ghost's clutches and rashly promising to solve the former's murder, Aidan discovers that his friends (all of them, including that special one) have his back, too. As he is cast with a heart considerably stronger than his judgment, readers will likewise be firmly on his side--especially as, in the wake of a gut-wrenching climax that includes flashbacks of a homophobic lynching, love ultimately wins out over hate and fear to resolve all conflicts. Even that mean girl redeems herself handsomely, in the end.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
A clandestine crush and Luciferian curse threaten to rupture a tight-knit group of Massachusetts boys in this sprawling queer horror novel by Norton (Hopepunk). Unassuming Aidan Cross--who has a "personality like wet socks"--has feelings for close friend Kai. Unable to confess his crush to Kai or vent his emotions to the other half of his friend group--snarky Zephyr and intelligent Terrance--the 13-year-old instead pours his feelings into a private journal. After his notebook ends up inside a nearby haunted house, Aidan hopes to use his friends' ill-advised sleepover at the house to retrieve it without them noticing. During their excursion, the crew begins to tease apart a gruesome local legend, and Aidan's journal catches the attention of one of the resident specters. When some of the contents of his notebook are made public, Aidan, petrified of losing his friends, scrambles to solve the centuries-old mystery to reclaim the book before his private thoughts ruin his friendships forever. Though the overlapping layers of both the curse's backstory and the boys' social lives lend to an overcrowded plot, the core protagonists' goofy humor makes for an endearing and wholesome adventure. Terrence reads as Black; other characters cue as white. Ages 10--up. Agent: Jenny Bent, Bent Agency. (Aug.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A fearless foursome in small-town Massachusetts confront an evil curse. Thirteen-year-old Aidan is secretly in love with one of his best friends, and he expresses that love through a fan fiction--style story he writes in secret. When Aidan and the gang--swoony Kai, know-it-all Terrance, and snarky Zephyr--explore Witch House, the dilapidated haunted mansion on Yeet Street (formerly owned by a wealthy Swedish immigrant from the 1920s), Aidan decides to get rid of the evidence of his crush. He tosses his fan fiction notebook through a busted window. Upon discovering it, mean girl Bea, who works out the identities of the main characters, posts the story, making it go viral, but Aidan has other things on his mind. A spine-tingling phantasm called the Backwards Lady keeps appearing around town, and Aidan also befriends blood-covered Gabby, the spirit of a legendary local girl who was found dead in Witch House 20 years ago. Part coming-out narrative, part ghost story, and part historical fiction, the story struggles to escape the grasp of a passive writing style that's heavy on telling, reducing the impact of the creepy and emotional moments alike. Most of the predominantly white-cued characters (Terrance presents Black) are broadly drawn and come across as one-note. Some unexamined hurtful humor and a few odd moments, like a teenager cheerfully describing "traps" ("these girls are boys"), also mar the storytelling. Falls short of its promising premise. (Paranormal. 10-14) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
