Night Magic

April 1, 2017
The city of Philadelphia continues to turn wild after dark in this sequel to Nightstruck (2016).When the sun goes down on the quarantined city, chaos reigns while innocents huddle safely inside. Vandals and hoodlums calling themselves "the Nightstruck" roam the streets doing whatever they please, and now 17-year-old white teen Becket is one of them. The devastatingly handsome--and inhuman--leader of the Nightstruck, Aleric, wants Becket for himself, but Becket can't quite give herself over to him. Meanwhile, the rest of the world tries to figure out what to do with the cursed city. The first half of the novel submerges Becket in the devil-may-care world of the Nightstruck, but the chaos overstays its welcome. There are plenty of mysteries surrounding this nightly curse, but spending all this time with burglars and sex fiends does little to illuminate them. The characters remain stagnant for this entry, and, in a classic middle-volume sag, the story concludes with characters right back where they were at the end of the last book. Most disappointing is the absence of scares. The previous entry was filled with bumps and thumps in the night, but now that entire scenes are set with monsters in the background, the spark is gone. The remains are a plodding mystery that characters are barely interested in. If the characters don't care, why should readers? A disappointing follow-up to a promising first chapter. (Thriller. 12-16)

COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 1, 2017
Gr 8 Up-The quarantine continues in Philadelphia as Nightstruck citizens and magical horrors plague the streets, destroying, looting, and killing with abandon. Becket is now Nightstruck, having ended the previous book stuck outside at dawn. But she no longer cares about consequences, as Nightstruck lack any conscience or guilt. The heroine's former bitter enemy Aleric is her new best friend, and the two become lovers. As Becket dives deeper into the madness, she realizes that she is different, less affected, and bored with her new existence. After an old friend physically pulls her back into the sunlight, Becket seems to recover herself and is guilt-stricken over what she has done by letting more night magic into the city. She is desperate to keep herself free of the night and away from Aleric's evil influence. Becket longs to save those few people she still cares about. This sequel to the horror novel Nightstruck is listless, with an underdeveloped protagonist. With so little difference between Nightstruck Becket and regular Becket, it is nearly impossible to empathize with or root for her. There is not much to the plot, and the twists are predictable, making the scare factor low. VERDICT Purchase only where die-hard fans are expecting the follow-up to Nightstruck. Instead, choose Barry Lyga's I Hunt Killers or Rin Chupeco's The Girl from the Well.-Kristen Rademacher, Marist High School, IL

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.