School Library Journal Review
Gr 10 Up--What are monsters? Does society create monsters or do they plague the earth regardless of what we do? In this book, a 16-year-old from the Bronx named Raquel is determined to find the answers to these questions. For years, kids in the Bronx have mysteriously gone missing without a trace, taken by the monsters. Center to the plot is an urban legend called the Echo Game, which is said to trap people under the city. Raquel and her friends team up when their friend Francisco (the cousin of Raquel's crush Charlize) is taken and enter a sinister world drenched in the dark past of New York. Tirado drops readers into a suspense-filled, terrifying world. Readers will be immediately struck with alarm, terror, and the feeling that something is about to sneak around a corner. This feeling propels the story forward and builds tension that does not release until the conclusion. The story holds many secrets, twists, and surprises for readers, touching into the supernatural and merging fiction and reality. This is a fast-paced, psychologically engaging, and terrifying novel that takes everyday traumas such as slumlords and racism and personifies them as monsters. There is Black and Latinx representation among the characters. VERDICT Readers will be on the edge of their seats and will have the chance to explore societal issues in a new way to answer the question "What are monsters?" when reading this book.--Tracey S. Hodges
Publisher's Weekly Review
An urban legend turns all too real in Tirado's genre-bending debut, a suspenseful love letter to the Bronx. As missing-person reports rise within the borough, 16-year-old Raquel, a Black student of Dominican descent, takes AP classes, attends an after-school art club, and hangs out with best friend Aaron. But things turn chaotic for Raquel when her mother is attacked, resulting in a mold infection and requiring a medically induced coma. Soon after, Raquel and Aaron's mutual crush, Charlize, seeks out Raquel's help to find her missing cousin, Francisco, a Fordham University student who has recently disappeared. As Raquel, who usually lives with her Christian mother, adjusts to staying at her dad's apartment, where he practices Santeria, she begins having nightmares about a burning Bronx and a man in a corduroy jacket--and awakening from these dreams covered in abrasions. The friends work to locate Francisco, uncovering a cursed challenge that seems connected to the missing people. But the only way to be sure is to play the strict three-rule game, which employs insidious traps and often claims players, placing them in a hellish imprint of a given area's most tragic period. Desperate to save their loved ones, the friends agree to take part. In a speculative novel that blends elements of horror with a history of gentrification and systemic racism, Tirado explores, with insight, the importance of community in the face of trauma and adversity. Most characters are Afro-Latinx; an author's note concludes. Ages 14--up. Agent: Kristina Pérez, Zeno Agency. (May)
