Trespass Against Us

April 15, 2024
Three teens return to a haunted building following the traumatic events that occurred there in this harrowing debut. Two years ago, 16-year-old aspiring ghost hunters Riley Fox, his boyfriend Ethan Hale, and friends Vee Cho and Colton Pierce broke into Saint Dominic Savio’s School for Troubled Youth, the site of an unsolved disappearance of a priest and five boys in the 1980s. Ethan vanished without a trace, and Riley bears deep facial scars from injuries he received during his own perilous escape. When ghost hunting television superstar Jordan Jones arrives and offers Riley $25,000 to gather his friends, return to the school, and record their excursion, he reluctantly agrees. Once inside the crumbling structure, Riley is certain he sees Ethan, and when filming equipment malfunctions, Colton goes missing, the car is destroyed, and their cellphones stop working, the teens, skeptic Jordan, and her crew panic. Kemp employs a dual timeline, alternating between flashbacks that slowly reveal what happened during Riley’s first visit and building hair-raising tension in the present-day via the group’s gratifyingly grim uncovering of the school’s history. Fans of supernatural horror driven by self-assured protagonists will enjoy this creepy tale. Most characters read as white; Jordan is described as having dark skin. Ages 13–up. Agent: Madelyn Burt, Stonesong Literary.

May 15, 2024
Ghost hunters seek to solve a decades-old mystery in this compelling horror debut. Two years ago, the foursome behind the "Ghost Hawks" YouTube channel--Riley Fox, Evelyn Cho, Colton Pierce, and Ethan Hale--spent the night at a Catholic reform school with the goal of finding out what happened to the five students and one priest who mysteriously disappeared from Saint Dominic Savio's School for Troubled Youths over winter break in 1982. Though four young YouTubers entered the building to investigate that night, only three left. Two years later, the remaining Ghost Hawks are offered a chance to return to Dominic House with Jordan Jones, the woman behind the popular Netflix ghost-hunting series Spirit Seekers, to film their experience. Though Jordan is offering them monetary compensation, 18-year-old Riley's primary reason for acquiescing is to figure out what happened to their missing friend, his boyfriend, Ethan. The book's format, which switches between the events of two years ago and the present day, lends an urgency to the story; readers will likely not want to put it down. Its plot-driven nature, though, leaves little room for character development, other than that of bad boy Colton, who's been ostracized for selling out his friends to the tabloids. Most characters read white; Evelyn's name signals Korean heritage, and Jordan is cued Black. A genuinely creepy ghost story that delves into religious trauma. (Horror. 14-18)

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 1, 2024
Grades 8-12 Forty or so years ago, at Saint Dominic Savio's School for Troubled Youths, five teen boys and Father Thomas, the adult charged with their care, disappeared. Decades later, the case has remained unsolved, and it is widely believed the reform school is haunted. Best friends and aspiring ghost hunters Riley, Ethan, Colton, and Vee embark on a life-changing excursion to Dominic House, but only three of them return, and their hoped-for YouTube fame never materializes, though unwanted media attention does. Two years later, the host of a ghost-hunting-show approaches the friends with an offer too good to pass up. Riley, who's still haunted by nightmares since his boyfriend, Ethan's, disappearance, is the most reluctant to accept, but he has a nagging feeling that something is waiting for him. Kemp does a good job of building suspense and establishing historical context with the dual time-line structure, and while primarily horror, the novel has an undercurrent of paranormal romance that gives it some heart. Hand to fans of the quietly creepy and those who like Vincent Tirado's novels.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 1, 2024

Gr 10 Up-Two years ago, Riley and his friends Vee and Colton and Riley's boyfriend Ethan embarked on what promised to be an excellent way to get content for their new Ghost Hawks YouTube channel-exploring the now-defunct Dominic Savio's School for Troubled Youths, aka Dominic House, an old Catholic facility where a priest and five children disappeared years ago under mysterious circumstances. Tragedy struck again; Ethan disappeared into thin air in an event that left Riley with extensive burn scars on his face and arms. Now, famous ghost-hunting show host Jordan Jones has shown up with a lucrative offer: $25,000 each in return for revisiting the house to find out once and for all if something supernatural resides there. Backed into a corner, Riley agrees to the trip, only to come face to face again with the darkness that calls Dominic House home. But this time, he's not leaving Ethan behind no matter what. Emotional revelations through dual time lines spur on an occasionally unevenly paced plot, and religious trauma creates the underpinnings of the horrors the group encounters on both trips to Dominic House. Sharply drawn characters are easily distinguished, and the story is propelled by their complex dynamic. VERDICT A searing and suspenseful debut.-Allie Stevens

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