Hampton Heights One harrowing night in the most haunted neighborhood in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

One winter night in Milwaukee in 1987, six middle-school-age paperboys, canvassing for new subscriptions in a neighborhood they've never visited before, discover that monsters are real and that surviving evil could mean confronting their own inner turmoil. (Monsters as a real threat and as a metaphor for adolescence? Hell, yeah.) This is the first foray into the horror genre for Kois, author of the novel Vintage Contemporaries (2023) and works of nonfiction, and it is splendid. The story is genuinely frightening and written as well as anything you'll see from a veteran of the genre. But what really sells this imaginative, scary, verge-of-growing-up tale is its characters, each with a distinct voice and personality. Even Kevin, the kids' supervisor, who could have been a one-note supporting character, is carefully drawn. The Milwaukee setting is also a plus, as are the confounding barriers the teens encounter associated with class, race, immigration, and sex. Kois' surprising second novel is a natural for fans of the character-based horror fiction of Grady Hendrix or Paul Tremblay and will win him a whole new sphere of readers.

A ragtag group of Wisconsin paperboys grapples with fear and friendship during an ill-fated excursion one night in 1987. You can draw a perfectly straight line through 1980s-themed supernatural horror likeThe Goonies andStranger Things to contemporary novels like Jason Rekulak'sThe Impossible Fortress and Edgar Cantero'sMeddling Kids to this novel's closest analogue, Brian K. Vaughan's influential graphic novel series,Paper Girls. Where the girls were navigating weirdness like time travel and alternate dimensions, Kois drops his six tweenage monsters into a neighborhood full of real ones. Lured by Kevin, their scumbag newspaper delivery manager, into canvassing an unfamiliar neighborhood to sell subscriptions to theMilwaukee Sentinel, the kids eagerly attack their mission for the promise of a Burger King dinner and a little extra pocket money. Bitching about his ex and generally a miserable SOB, Kevin is soon off the board, waylaid by a mysterious siren in the local dive bar. Thoughtful and observant Sigmone, one of his school's only Black kids, teams up with rich kid Joel, only to discover his long-lost grandfather leading a gang of neighborhood enforcers. Nursing a wicked crush on his classmate Heather, hopeless romantic Mark teams up with his rule-abiding pal Ryan, only for a stray gingerbread treat to lead them both astray for quite a while. Fortunately, budding grifter and self-described hustler Business Al and his new partner, Nishu, have their wits about them when they're held up by an unusual extortionist who demands payment for passage, turning the tables on him. Delightfully immature and authentic dialogue, a refreshing lack of cynicism, and some genuinely unnerving threats all help elevate what could have been a slapdash assembly of tropes to an engaging and eerie adventure---as advertised. A fractured fairy tale, as much about getting out with your skin intact as the friends we made along the way. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.