The Sender sisters, Molly and Clara, are surprisingly successful 18-year-old co-managers of a revived Yiddish theater on Second Avenue in Manhattan. That’s because they’re also more than a century old; Molly and Clara are Estries, undead women from Ashkenazi lore who turn into blood-drinking monsters and can fly around on owls’ wings. They’ve done a […]
In Vienna, even when unusual pets were all the rage, local birds like starlings weren’t very popular. But the story goes that in the spring of 1784, Mozart heard a starling in a pet store sing out one of his own compositions. Though the bird had a plain appearance—“with a faint purple sheen, / and […]
“Call me Herman.” Such a commandment could come from only one writer, Herman Melville, who stands at the center of Fresán’s narrative. Occupying much of that space, too, albeit in sometimes spectral form, is Melville’s father, Allan Melvill (the -e a typo that his son, the victim of a bureaucrat’s pen, stuck with, even as, […]
When her aunt Cora goes missing, Quinn Cutheridge returns to the town of Wonderland, Wyoming, for the first time in a decade. Although Quinn’s line of work gives her a professional lens that might help get to the bottom of Cora’s disappearance, she’s ambivalent about taking on the case. She hasn’t seen or spoken to […]
Everett can’t resist the lure of fame and bright lights, but his current “live show” in his tropical venue doesn’t give him the acclaim he wants. When he’s onstage at the Sandy Straw, he’s largely ignored by the customers, who are busy eating and chatting. Then he learns about the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, inspiring […]
Twenty-five years after 12-year-old Penelope Marcus rode into the woods with Frank Ross, the owner of High Rise Farms, newly revealed evidence suggests that she bashed him to death. She’s arrested, extradited from California to New York, and uprooted from both Laus, her estranged husband, and Tella, the daughter who struggles with mental health issues. […]
“Everybody in Ireland knows that banshees are supernatural harbingers of doom.” Referred to as bansheenies when they are young, these fairies grow in pods. Each banshee forms an unshakable link with the first human they see until one day, the banshee bursts forth to “howl the banshee’s howl at them”—a sign that the human is […]
A couple of dramatic prologues and some early exposition bring readers up to speed about the mysteries and players of Hemlock Falls. Winnie Wednesday, Erica Thursday, and Jay Friday have formed a clue-gathering trio collectively known as the WTF triangle. The three agree to work together to uncover the truth behind mysteries involving Winnie’s missing […]
Cooper Stanley is a gifted young stage magician whose father, an electrician named Eddie, taught him all he knew about the craft, creating a strong father-son bond. But when Eddie (whose magical alter ego was the Great Eduardo) suddenly and tragically dies, Cooper struggles with his volatile emotions. Although he tries to internalize his grief, […]
When 17-year-old Devin is woken up in the middle of the night by two men in her room, she fights back and calls for her foster parents. She quickly learns they’re well aware of what’s going on. The men throw her into a van that’s holding another teen named Ollie and take them both into […]