From the Publisher
Doesn’t skimp on supernatural spookiness, slapstick, or teenage snark. . . . A darkly humorous, rapid-fire read in which the living are sometimes scarier than the dead.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Zappia crafts an engaging dark fantasy, expertly weaving together a small-town aesthetic and a Midwestern gothic sensibility, a complicated town history replete with grudges and ghost stories, and complex characters in a Buffy The Vampire Slayer–esque story with plenty of appeal.” — Publishers Weekly
"Girl power for a new era." — Booklist
“Plot twists will keep the audience turning pages.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
Plot twists will keep the audience turning pages.
Booklist
"Girl power for a new era."
Booklist
"Girl power for a new era."
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Plot twists will keep the audience turning pages.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
Plot twists will keep the audience turning pages.
Kirkus Reviews
2019-06-18
Her family has been a target of slurs—"trailer dogs," "rednecks"—but she may still save the town.
Eighteen-year-old Zora Novak is down two parents and two fingers, living in a trailer on the town outskirts with her sister, Sadie, because their mom's missing and father's in jail. Deceptively quaint Addamsville, Indiana, relies on a thriving ghost-tourism industry, although Zora's the only person who can see the departed. But the ghosts (thankfully gloomy, not gruesome) are restless, and there's a shape-shifting, ghost-eating firestarter on the loose, destroying property and possibly possessing people. Like a profane, brunette Buffy, Zora has a gift but needs a Scooby gang to help her save Addamsville. Reluctantly allying with reformed (maybe) firestarter Bach and insufferably perfect cousin Artemis, Zora attempts to dispatch the firestarter, sabotage a ghost-hunting TV crew, solve mysteries, survive high school…and avoid maiming, death, or serious jail time. Abrasive, defensive, and secretly sentimental, Zora doesn't let social pariahdom stand in the way of fulfilling her paranormal duties. Zappia (Eliza and Her Monsters, 2017, etc.) both invokes and subverts poverty porn, dark tourism, and small-minded small-town life in this arch look at social inequalities that doesn't skimp on supernatural spookiness, slapstick, or teenage snark. Main characters follow a white default, but there is some ethnic diversity in secondary characters.
A darkly humorous, rapid-fire read in which the living are sometimes scarier than the dead. (Paranormal. 14-18)
