From Booklist
Five years after the fiery death of Jacob Crawley, a self-styled prophet and founder of a cult called The Divine Path, five teens are reunited by the death of Crawley’s son, Harold, who was found drowned, miles from the nearest water. Holed up in a motel in their former hometown, the teens soon begin to suspect that they might be facing death in the way each one fears the most—just as creepy Jacob Crawley once prophesied. Sure enough, one by one, they start to die. Fahy, the author of the adult horror novel Night Visions (2004), makes his YA debut with this story, which reads like a screenplay and is filled with horror-movie conventions (though, mercifully, no one goes into a dark basement). That said, the white-knuckle moments will hold genre fans, and an equivocal ending that suggests a sequel might be waiting in the wings. Grades 8-12. --Michael Cart
Review
Teeth-clenchingly suspenseful at times and deliciously creepy at others, Fahy (Night Visions) delivers a classic horror story with his YA debut, about a religious cult destroyed by a fire and the six teens who escape. He pulls out all the necessary stops as he constructs the terrifying story of what comes to pass five years later as the surviving teens are being murdered one by one, according to the cult leader's prophecy. The author gives readers gory visual descriptions of the crime scenes, tension-building cliffhangers and the type of unexpected surprises that if translated to film would make moviegoers scream, and he nails each device beautifully. An element of genre-specific camp attaches to some of the scenes; for example, the main character, Allison, has epileptic seizures during which she envisions each murder before it happens; and in a pivotal sequence, Allison assumes the killer is dead, but readers know otherwise. Executed with panache, these familiar elements only add to the overall thrill. A page-turner that just might keep readers up at night--especially given the loosely resolved ending. Ages 12-up. (Feb.) -- From Publishers Weekly (February 11, 2008)
