Kaira, fleeing a devastating event from her past, hides out at the Islington Arts Academy, headquartered in snow-laden upper Michigan. Her thesis, the culmination of two years of work, is coming due, but even with great friends like Ethan and Elisa, she is distracted by things she sees as omens, reminders of past traumas. When she tells her friends some of what happened to her, Kaira feels like she has finally banished some of her demons. Unfortunately, the mysterious omens crows and ravens cawing everywhere and terrible, dark dreams will not go away. Death keeps following her, mysterious entities demanding their due. Only the tip of their mythological desires are revealed in this first of a planned series, and the ending will have readers begging for more. The mystery does take a few chapters to get going, but strong writing and characterization ultimately make the journey captivating. This successfully straddles the lines between realistic fiction, urban fantasy, and horror, and is ideal for all YA collections.--Comfort, Stacey Copyright 2016 Booklist

Something terrible happened to Kairasomething so awful that she banished herself. Islington Arts Academy, a high school for gifted students nestled in the north woods of Michigan, gives Kaira the chance to start over. She wants to forget the past, work on her thesis, and spend as much time as possible with Ethan, her best friend, before senior year ends. Then one student dies, followed by another. The deaths are labeled suicides. But Kaira never ignores an omen, and the crows taking over campus are proof that something sinister from her past has followed her into the present. The novel's haunting location and use of mythology lead readers to believe that something superbly supernatural is going to occur. However, the story takes too long to arrive at the action, and long portions of the novel are expository passages about Kaira's past and her odd, flirtatious relationship with Ethan, who is gay. The diverse cast is worth noting, and it's almost impossible for readers not to identify with one character or anothereven if most of the cast comes across as slightly pretentious. Kaira's facile self-description as an "unknown blend of Native American bloodlines" seems unconvincing given the importance of specific heritage to tribal benefits. Readers looking for less exposition and more action in their supernatural fiction might be disappointed, especially by the book's sequel-bait cliffhanger ending. (Suspense. 14-18) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Gr 10 Up-A contemporary American gothic with evocative details but an unsatisfying payoff. While attending the Islington Arts Academy, a private boarding school in northern Michigan, Kaira begins to have flashbacks to a violent episode from her past. She tries to suppress the frightening visions while focusing on her friendships and completing her senior thesis, a series of paintings based on Tarot cards. But when her classmates start dying mysteriously, the protagonist becomes convinced she is somehow responsible. The particulars of winter at boarding school leap off the page; well-drawn descriptions of frozen lakes, silent woods, neo-rustic architecture, and the pleasures of hot tea and waffles bring the setting to life. The narrator and her friends are an appealing bunch of quirky visual, musical, and performing artists with a heavy dose of adolescent hormones and what-happens-next senior angst. Their teenage banter and trash-talking is quite funny and helps define their relationships, although the narrator's reference to a gay friend as "homo" may give readers pause. The book's central mystery, what happened to Kaira and how it's related to the deaths, unfolds at a frustratingly slow pace and is only partially resolved in the final pages. The ending sets up a second volume in the series. VERDICT An additional purchase for horror collections.-Beth Wright Redford, Richmond Elementary School Library, VT © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.