Possession

August 15, 2016
In this uneven follow-up to 2015's Diary of a Haunting, fictitious editor Verano returns with further "documentation" of the supernatural. Laetitia, a 15-year-old African-American girl, blogged publicly about hair, makeup, and her quest to become a diva, until a mysterious illness stole her singing voice. Now her posts are set to private, and they chronicle the nightmares, hallucinations, and strange phenomena that have since plagued her. Meanwhile, across town, police officers stand trial for the murder of a young black man. Race riots seem imminent, and despite her own troubles, Laetitia can't help but obsess over the media coverage. A "lightly edited" version of Laetitia's journal forms the bulk of the tale, while chat logs and official reports fill in the gaps and editor's notes add context. Laetitia's narrative rings true when she's reflecting on matters of identity, faith, and justice, but she never fully sells her fear, sapping the story of tension and drive. The paranormal element is cleverly conceived but imperfectly executed, resulting in a successful coming-of-age story but an underwhelming horror novel. Ages 14âup.

April 25, 2011
A dominant but corrupt government is one of the most familiar tropes in dystopian fiction, and Johnson's debut novel sets up a dichotomy between "Goodies," residents of the Goodgrounds, where behavior is controlled via brainwashing and omnipresent technology, and the "Baddies," who live out in the Badlands. Violet Schoenfeld, on the brink of 16, is arrested for being out after dark with a boyâtwo infractions in an endless litany of acts forbidden to Goodies. A repeat offender, Vi is forced to share a jail cell with a Baddie, Jag, and she begins to reassess the precepts that have been fed directly into her brain from childhood. Johnson's writing is solid, and if her plot unfolds a bit too schematically (the precise orchestration is supposedly due to the perfection of the villain's control), Vi's rebellion and process of change ring true. Some readers may question Vi's acceptance of some fortuitous events along the way, but most will be drawn in by the love triangle, revelations about Vi and her family, and a dark twist ending that maintains the faintest glimmer of hope. Ages 14âup.

Starred review from June 15, 2016
A terrifying illness tied to the occult threatens the life of a black girl who blogs about beauty. Fifteen-year-old Laetitia writes a popular blog about what she calls "divanation," or making herself up like a diva--which she aspires to be. But when she loses her voice and begins to feel ill, Laetitia's hair and makeup tips give way to increasingly dark entries about mysterious burning pains on her skin and graphic visions of death and torture. Laetitia tries to shift her focus to a racially charged police shooting in her community and the protests that follow, but the illness worsens. When doctors dismiss Laetitia's problems as psychological, Laetitia, her mom, and her grandmother look to their Christian faith and a local voodoo practitioner for answers. Laetitia wonders if something demonic has taken over her body--or perhaps it's something benevolent. Laetitia's ordeal is told primarily through her "found" online journal. The blog posts, written in a pitch-perfect black teen girl's voice, are accompanied by police and social-services reports, hospital records, and eerie black-and-white photographs. The collection of documents is putatively edited by the fictional scholar of the paranormal "Montague Verano." Laetitia's story, the second in the Diary of a Haunting series, is unpredictable, mesmerizing, and scarily realistic. Paranormal Activity meets The Exorcist in this chilling, well-crafted tale of a black teen girl's struggle to make sense of horrifying forces within her. (Horror. 14 & up)

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July 1, 2016

Gr 9 Up-In this installment, Laetitia's lifestyle blog takes a more negative tone after a series of disturbing events follow the loss of her singing voice. She wakes from visions of torture to find bruises on her arms, and artifacts from her dreams are left as souvenirs around her room. The episodes intensify-she has visions and fits at school and starts vomiting up strange objects. Her mother is convinced that she is dealing with a demon and involves Miss Pierre, a fellow churchgoer who specializes in the darker side of spirituality, to help locate the source of Laetitia's behavior. Meanwhile, a local African American boy is caught on video being shot and killed by police officers while sitting on his stoop, and the jury comes back with a verdict of not guilty. The responsive protests that start up blocks from Laetitia's home are increasingly compelling. The titular possession, which seems clearly demonic, shifts after a particularly violent episode, landing the teen in a psychiatric institution where she realizes that some of her visions are tied to the stories of the saints. She returns home, focusing her energies on helping the protesters, which ultimately brings her peace. Laetitia's switch from growling demon to ballad-writing saint seems like a quick-fix ending. The story is told entirely in blog posts, but despite the dramatic plot and opportunity for personal revelation, it reads as flat and unemotional, and the prickles of fear one expects from the genre fail to arise. VERDICT Readers looking for spine-tinglers are better off with Amy Lukavics's Daughters unto Devils.-Joanna Sondheim, Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School, New York City

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