Publishers Weekly
★ 02/22/2021
Following a home invasion that leaves Rachel Chavez and her mother feeling unsafe in the Long Island suburbs, they relocate to Brooklyn, and Rachel’s teacher mother takes a job at the Upper East Side’s tony Manchester Prep. Rachel enrolls as a junior but fails to fit in, instead spending her free time bingeing scary movies to work through her trauma. After witnessing a frightening party prank, Rachel tracks down fellow Latino Freddie Martinez, whom she believes to be responsible, and talks her way into joining the Mary Shelley Club, a secret society, cued as ethnically varied, whose members—nerd Freddie, jock Bram Wilding, misanthrope Felicity Chu, and comedian Thayer Turner—share a passion for all things horror. At first, Rachel enjoys the sense of power that accompanies participation in the group’s “Fear Tests”—scenarios staged to terrify their peers. Before long, however, her new friends’ fun takes a sinister turn. This twisty tour de force from Moldavsky (No Good Deed) is at once a gripping teen melodrama, an incisive meditation on fear, and a love letter to horror and the genre’s tropes. Vividly sketched characters, crafty plotting, and an adrenalized pace conspire to captivate and confound readers through the unsettling close. Ages 14–up. Agent: Jenny Bent, the Bent Agency. (Apr.)
From the Publisher
A smart, serpentine, propulsive thriller with an ending that will make you gasp. Don’t try to read this one right before bed if you want to sleep.” —Jeff Zentner, award-winning author of Rayne & Delilah’s Midnite Matinee
“This club is SERIOUSLY. MESSED. UP. I loved everything about it.” —Lygia Day Peñaflor, author of All of This Is True
“A bright, smooth candy apple with a razor blade inside. Goldy Moldavsky continues her white-hot streak of unmatched brilliance in the world of contemporary YA.” —Derek Milman, author of Scream All Night and Swipe Right for Murder
"This twisty tour de force from Moldavsky (No Good Deed) is at once a gripping teen melodrama, an incisive meditation on fear, and a love letter to horror and the genre’s tropes." —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
"An atmospheric page-turner about loving scary movies, longing to belong, and uncovering the many masks people wear." —Kirkus Reviews
"Moldavsky manages to both pay homage to and poke fun at traditional horror tropes, dialing up the cheesiness at points to then replace it with true terror, and the final fear test is keenly chilling." —The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
School Library Journal
03/01/2021
Gr 9 Up—After a violent home invasion that leaves Rachel, who is Latina, with a traumatic secret, her mother takes a job at an elite Manhattan prep school where Rachel also enrolls—a fresh start for both of them. The teen immediately connects with bubbly classmate Saundra, but for the most part keeps to herself. When she uncovers, and is eventually invited to join, a secret club that revolves around horror movies and tropes, the contrived fear and catharsis that horror has brought her since her attack helps her feel at home with the club members, even as tensions she doesn't quite understand are always near the surface of the group's dynamic. As the group runs their Fear Tests—harmless horror scenarios each member is challenged to enact on their classmates—Rachel's past begins to catch up with her and she realizes the club might not be as harmless as she imagined. Loyalty, revenge, and the uses of fear are themes in this fast-moving thriller, and questions of how the plot does or does not add up in the end are eclipsed by fun horror references and a complex protagonist readers will root for. There is a minor love triangle among Rachel and two members of her group, but her friendship with enthusiastic, loyal Saundra is especially well developed. VERDICT A great choice for teens who enjoy horror and are looking for a quick read.—Beth McIntyre, formerly at Madison P.L., WI
Kirkus Reviews
2021-02-05
Rachel, a 16-year-old trauma survivor, is initiated into her private school’s secret society for horror fans.
A year after surviving a violent attack, high school junior Rachel Chavez becomes the new girl at Manchester Prep on Manhattan’s affluent Upper East Side. The middle-class daughter of a faculty member, Rachel feels invisible except for her one new friend, harmless school gossip Saundra Clairmont. After a school party ends in a ghost story, a séance, and screaming, Rachel—who immersed herself in horror movies as a coping device—notices a prankster amid the chaos. Soon, she is initiated into the Mary Shelley Club, a tightknit group that requires secrecy and rule-following from its members. She joins Freddie Martinez, a film geek on scholarship; hot-tempered, Stephen King–adoring Felicity Chu; charming Thayer Turner, whose political family is compared to the Obamas; and brooding golden boy Bram Wilding. Mostly the teens just watch all sorts of horror films—classics, slasher, zombie, psychological—but membership also involves more sinister activities. Moldavsky’s tightly plotted tale weaves in dark humor, an impressive amount of horror trivia, and insightful references to Frankenstein. Readers will quickly become invested in Rachel’s story even when she’s making difficult-to-witness mistakes. The characters are notably diverse; issues of ethnicity and social class are naturally woven into the story.
An atmospheric page-turner about loving scary movies, longing to belong, and uncovering the many masks people wear. (Horror. 14-18)
