This ambling tale takes too long to get going. Several of Kick’s experiments are appended. There are some secondary characters of color, but most of the cast presents white. Alas, here Bernard’s use of the Southern idiom just bogs her plot down. When done well, Southern ease, as heard in its legendary drawl and tasted in its cuisine, slows the pace to an elegant, earthy perfection. Then Kick smells the “porta potty” odor and sees a “smear of glowing green” and “ horrible figures,” and she wonders if science can so easily dismiss these supernatural phenomena…and, halfway through the book, readers will wonder if the plot will pick up or stay plodding along. This strategy backfires when one of the mean-girl bullies demands that she use that ability to remove the curse. Kick’s visit coincides with the 100-year occurrence of the town’s curse, in which “the children turned into monsters and took over the town.” Kick’s scientific mind dismisses the lore, which comes with a nursery rhyme, even as she lies about being a psychic to fit into her new school. Georgia Winter, who leaves Kick with her admittedly fake-psychic and quite stylish mother, Grandma Missouri, at her home, the Hollows. Kick plans a career in STEM, like her “super scientist” mother, Dr. A skeptic finds herself caught up in paranormal shenanigans.īernard situates readers in Southern, swampy, alligator-populated Bohring, amid the debris of 11-year-old Karis “Kick” Winter’s explosion.
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