From Publishers Weekly
In his latest well-crafted horror novel, Stoker-winner Golden (The Ferryman) presents a nostalgic, unsentimental portrait of adolescence. A young reporter, Will James, whose career has stalled due to his obsession with debunking the supernatural, returns home for his 10th high school reunion to discover that his memories of the events of his senior year are not only news to his classmates but are actually changing into recollections of much darker events. Youthful experiments with the black arts have set in motion ripples that are altering his present reality in unsettling ways. Will travels back in time to the period immediately before his prom to set things straight, only to realize that someone is actively working to destroy him and his friends-and that person is using more powerful magic than his own. Golden addresses the issue of how one's identity is intimately bound to the memory of one's experiences: change the memory and the personality is changed. More sensitive younger readers will pick up on the book's moral lessons, while adult fans will overlook the didactic element and appreciate the suspenseful plot and strong atmosphere.
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From
Starred Review Will James reluctantly decides to attend his tenth high-school reunion. He's perplexed when his friend Mike doesn't show, but when he asks his friend Danny about Mike, Danny tells him Mike died during their senior year. Will is horrified to actually feel his memories changing. He can remember an e-mail he exchanged with Mike just a week ago, but he does also recall Mike being killed when a drunk driver hit him 10 years back. What's more, suddenly, before Will's eyes, Ashleigh--his best friend in childhood--changes from a happy young mother of two to a woman still scarred by the rape and subsequent abortion that robbed her of the capability to have children. Kyle, the teenager living in Will's old house, turns out to hold the key to all this weirdness. When he brings Will a book of Dark Magick, memories Will has blocked for 10 years come flooding back, and he realizes the root of his problems may indeed lie in his own actions in the past. Golden takes a truly creepy fantastic premise and delivers in spades; this gripping story is not to be missed. Kristine Huntley
Copyright ยฉ American Library Association. All rights reserved