January 15, 2022
A small group of farms with magical crops are threatened by an all-consuming blight that creates zombielike creatures out of the people and animals it infects. Sixteen-year-old Wren's family grows rainbow-hued wheat in Hollow's End, an insular community that guards its clandestine history mightily. Even as Wren's beloved dog, Teddy, and people from neighboring farms go missing in the woods, returning as mindless creatures with white eyes that try to attack others, Wren's dad tries to conceal the alchemy that is the source of their livelihood. However, when Wren's mom and dad also disappear, she is forced to turn to her ex-boyfriend, Derek, for help. From his neighboring farm, she slowly begins to uncover a truth that also involves his family and two others. The richly developed details of the blight and its relationship to the people of Hollow's End lend interest and mystery to the familiar romance that also lies at the heart of this story. Likewise, the novel offers an original flavor to traditional zombie tropes, balancing taut, desperate, action-oriented escapes with longer passages describing alchemical rituals. Wren reads as White; Derek is cued as biracial, White and Latinx. A vivid and engrossing horror-tinged tale of magic and corrosive family secrets. (Paranormal fantasy. 12-18)
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February 15, 2022
Grades 9-12 For generations, the picturesque town of Hollow's End has thrived with its founding families' miraculous crops and livestock: the Pewter-Flores' glowing ghost melons, the Murphys' golden yams, the Harrises' prized animals, and the Warrens' rainbow wheat. Sixteen-year-old Wren has only ever wanted to inherit her family's farm and marry her best friend, Derek. Instead, she and Derek have broken up, and the farms are being consumed by a terrible blight that Wren believes is her doing. Animals and people who breathe in the pestilent spores also become infected, disappearing into the woods and returning, mindlessly violent, at night. When her parents disappear, Wren asks Derek for help discovering the source of the blight, and they learn that the magic of their ancestors comes at a cost. Debut author Fraistat's combination zombie thriller and folk horror is scary and intense, with a looming, apprehensive mood punctuated with breakneck action. Wren's perspective is viscerally chilling as she worries about becoming infected and probes into the town's dark secrets. A happy ending reverses the horror too neatly but still satisfies.
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March 1, 2022
Gr 8 Up-The four founding families of Hollow's End have been raising miracle crops for generations, bringing stability and lucrative tourism to the idyllic and secluded farming town. When the quicksilver blight attacks, it destroys the crops first, coating plants in glistening silver sludge and a rotting stench. Next it comes for the animals and finally for the people, who develop foggy white eyes and run off to the forest, returning at night to mindlessly attack. After Wren is exposed to the blight, she and her ex-boyfriend Derek try to stop the menace and learn the dark truth about their families' legacy. Fraistat's debut is richly detailed and pulsing with harrowing suspense. As Wren and Derek race around town in a truck and on horseback, narrowly escaping the increasingly aggressive blighted horde, Wren grapples with her own transformation. Her perspective as the blight overtakes her is intriguing, adding complexity with the discovery that the blighted are not senseless zombies. Horror tropes are put to good use to create a tense plot that unfolds at a breakneck pace. Lush detail brings the town and the gruesome blight to life, along with a hefty dose of body horror. Fraistat uses the concept of harvest to explore the idea of taking responsibility for one's own actions and the lingering harms of ancestors' wrongs. Wren presents as white, while Derek presents as white and Latinx. Derek's sister and her girlfriend are prominent secondary characters. Recommend to fans of Rory Power's Wilder Girls or Claire Legrand's Sawkill Girls. VERDICT This atmospheric tale of zombies and rotting legacies is riveting, and recommended for general purchase.-Elizabeth Lovsin
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Starred review from July 4, 2022
Sixteen-year-old, white-cued Wren Warren is the heir to Rainbow Fields, a farm famously known for its healing, multicolored wheat fields and one of the four founding farms of Hollow’s End. But after 150 years of agricultural success, the small town suffers a moldy, silvery blight whose spores decimate crops, and turn humans and animals alike into zombified, night-wandering versions of themselves. As other founding farms fall to the blight, Wren works to keep the mold at bay in Rainbow Fields, especially when her parents suddenly disappear. She recruits ex-boyfriend Derek, white- and Latinx-cued, to help, but in her haste to hold off the blight, Wren is infected. With her body rapidly decaying, she and Derek race against the clock to find her parents. In their search, they uncover dark and twisted secrets about the founding farms’ history and realize that the blight is a living, conscious disease—and that it’s seeking revenge on Hollow’s End. Intense, gripping, and deeply haunting, Fraistat’s debut, an invigorating take on the zombie genre, is a cautionary tale about greed and sacrifice, illustrating that not every legacy may be worth its price. Ages 12–up. Agent: Christa Heschke, McIntosh & Otis.