July 17, 2023
Kennedy (Dare to Know) puts an eerie, surrealist twist on the American Midwest, highlighting everything unusual about small-town living. The unnamed narrator, a teenage girl, introduces readers to a town that is routinely threatened by tornados. Her life is upended when she learns of “the tornado killer,” a local teenage boy with the ability to control winds—and thus the potential to prevent future damage—who seems to be tied into a community-wide conspiracy. As the narrator investigates the boy’s powers and origins, she comes to realize that they have a strange, unspoken bond. Meanwhile, more abnormalities sweep through the town: locals begin wearing odd talismans and other teen girls clad in white ceremonial dresses are led to the house of the town outcast. The narrator’s dread mounts as she races to uncover what’s really going on. The novel runs mostly on vibes, with Kennedy’s dreamlike storytelling occasionally coming at the expense of complete character arcs. Still, the focus on creating a desolate and strange atmosphere pays off. Horror fans who value ambience over jump scares will want to check this out. Agent: John Cusick, Folio Literary.
August 1, 2023
An unnamed narrator, a high-school sophomore, in an unnamed midwestern town, wakes up one morning to hear the adults whispering fearfully about Tornado Day. At school, the classes assemble in the gym to meet the tornado killer, who will supposedly save them from the deadly storms. But the tornado killer looks like a teenager, and the school bullies beat him up so he's unable to stop the tornado that rips through the school. Except the tornado killer is no kid. What follows is a genre-bending horror thriller that grapples with adolescent desire and existential dread in equal measures as seemingly sentient tornadoes plague the outskirts of the town, threatening to come ever closer. The narrator's voice rings true, as does her relationship with her sister, Cecilia. But readers will long for the halcyon days of the early part of the novel, when all the narrator had to worry about was not fitting in with the cool kids. Gooey, gory, and frightening, Kennedy's latest (after Dare to Know, 2021) will appeal to fans of coming-of-age horror.
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