Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

Trapped in an apocalyptic theme park, teens fight back.Jay has it pretty good, all things considered, in a not-too-distant future absolutely ravaged by droughts, fires, floods, and powder-keg instability. He and his family are live-in employees of Karloff Country, a mountaintop in Virginia taken over by a billionaire family who created their own version of Disneyland as a refuge for their similarly wealthy peers to cavort away from the destruction they helped create. But when the end times loom, Jay realizes that the new guests, the Trustees, are privileged to the point of sociopathy, torturing staff over perceived slights with impunity. Jay rebels along with fellow Karloff Academy seniors Zeke and Connie and Seychelle, his crush and an heir to the Karloff fortune (Chelle's racist grandfather, Franklin Karloff, hasn't gotten over her White mom's having had a biracial Black baby). They're all fast friends; "the Black kids always find each other." Narrated through multiple points of view, the novel features Jay's perspective most prominently, with some interludes from his friends, all presented in Giles' signature strong, accessible voice. With hints of Cory Doctorow, Jordan Peele, and Richard Matheson, this book stands on its own as a dystopian adventure, but the deeper metaphors around servitude, privilege, class, and solidarity mean that there's a lot to think about as the characters reckon with their proximity to and complicity in violence both local and far-flung.Hold tight: You'll want to stay on this nightmarish roller coaster till the end. (Horror. 13-18)

School Library Journal Starred Review (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

Gr 9 Up— As the world outside is plagued with severe climate change, poverty, and racism, Black teen Jay feels lucky his family was chosen to live in Karloff Country. Inside the Karloff walls is a renowned destination resort with theme parks, upscale hotels, restaurants, and shops. Helpers keep the resort running, so Jay splits his time with going to school, working at a theme park, and hanging with his crew: fellow Black teens Zeke and Connie, and Chelle, who, much to her grandfather's dismay, is the biracial heir to the Karloff empire. But soon the troubles of the outside world start to seep into Karloff; Connie disappears overnight, and residents are suddenly placed under lockdown as coordinated attacks occur worldwide. Jay is still grateful to be living in a safe zone—until the typical resort crowds disappear and the Trustees arrive with new demands. Karloff Country marketing campaigns interspersed within the text lead to initial connections between Karloff and the promised magic of Disneyworld. But the advertisements extolling a commitment to safety and equality quickly begin to underscore the glaring difference in Karloff's marketing and intended purpose. The Trustees have complete power over the Helpers, each described as a person of color, and their brutality ranges from the zap of electricity to a modern-day lynching, rapidly shifting ideas of Disneyworld to those of slavery. Nonstop action, increasingly dangerous risks, and themes of racism and classism will keep readers engaged and flying through this one—and rethinking that planned resort vacation. VERDICT A must for readers who want an entirely unique take on the apocalypse.— Maggie Mason Smith

Horn Book (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

Jay has lived for three years in Karloff Country, a Disney World-like resort in Virginia whose guests include the world's super-wealthy. It's billed as "The Funnest Place Around," and it is, since outside the walls in this near-future world the planet is devastated by poverty, hunger, wildfires, droughts, riots, and violence. The narration alternates among Jay and his friends Zeke and Connie, also Black and also Helpers at the amusement park; and Seychelle Karloff, biracial heiress to a multi-billion-dollar fortune. After an apocalyptic series of events, the friends come to realize that Karloff Country has been deliberately positioned as a refuge for the "prophets of finance and politics who saw society's collapse coming" and a "doomsday prison" for the Helpers, and they put themselves at risk by joining a rebellion. Giles skillfully places the four friends in the midst of a brutal upheaval with strong racial overtones, as Karloff Country, so meticulously perfect at the beginning of the novel, is dismantled and the world inside the walls begins to look like the devastated world outside. With elements of adventure, science fiction, horror, and even a bit of romance in a broken world, Giles keeps readers wondering who can and cannot be trusted throughout this page-turning novel.

Kirkus Reviews (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

Trapped in an apocalyptic theme park, teens fight back.Jay has it pretty good, all things considered, in a not-too-distant future absolutely ravaged by droughts, fires, floods, and powder-keg instability. He and his family are live-in employees of Karloff Country, a mountaintop in Virginia taken over by a billionaire family who created their own version of Disneyland as a refuge for their similarly wealthy peers to cavort away from the destruction they helped create. But when the end times loom, Jay realizes that the new guests, the Trustees, are privileged to the point of sociopathy, torturing staff over perceived slights with impunity. Jay rebels along with fellow Karloff Academy seniors Zeke and Connie and Seychelle, his crush and an heir to the Karloff fortune (Chelle's racist grandfather, Franklin Karloff, hasn't gotten over her White mom's having had a biracial Black baby). They're all fast friends; "the Black kids always find each other." Narrated through multiple points of view, the novel features Jay's perspective most prominently, with some interludes from his friends, all presented in Giles' signature strong, accessible voice. With hints of Cory Doctorow, Jordan Peele, and Richard Matheson, this book stands on its own as a dystopian adventure, but the deeper metaphors around servitude, privilege, class, and solidarity mean that there's a lot to think about as the characters reckon with their proximity to and complicity in violence both local and far-flung.Hold tight: You'll want to stay on this nightmarish roller coaster till the end. (Horror. 13-18)

Publishers Weekly (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

High school junior Jermaine “Jay” Butler lives year-round at walled, world-famous Karloff Country Resort. He spends his days attending classes at the prestigious Karloff Academy, working shifts at mega-popular theme park Enchantria, and hanging with his crew, which includes Connie, an elite restaurant chef’s Black daughter; Zeke, Black son of a resort engineer; and biracial (Black and white) Seychelle, sole heir to the vast Karloff fortune. Jay is grateful for his spot within Karloff Country’s wealthy community as the U.S. suffers national meat shortages, raging West Coast fires, East Coast flooding, and natural disasters battering Middle America. But when Connie and her family disappear overnight, it’s just the beginning of a series of ominous incidents. As Jay and his crew uncover haunting truths about their seemingly utopian getaway, they must contend with the knowledge of how precarious their lives really are, and work together to survive the deadly whims of the board of trustees who run the resort. Told through the teens’ alternating perspectives, Giles’s (Spin) harrowing dystopian novel combines an exploration of capitalistic greed and systemic racism and oppression with gripping psychological horror, resulting in a read that is guaranteed to terrify. Ages 12–up. Agent: Jamie Weiss Hilton, Andrea Brown Literary. (Sept.)