Burn Down, Rise Up

March 1, 2022
Bronx high schooler Raquel gets tangled up in a dangerous game while trying to save a friend. After Fordham University student Francisco Cruz goes missing, Raquel offers to help Charlize, his cousin who is also her childhood friend and secret crush, start up a search. But the circumstances signal that something even bigger than the mystery of his disappearance is wrong. Cisco seems to have been infected with a condition no one can explain that has spread to a nurse at a local hospital who just happens to be Raquel's Mami. Now Raquel's mother is comatose, and hints of a strange and fatal game start popping up as Raquel and Charlize try to get to the bottom of Cisco's disappearance. The novel's highlight is its premise that the Echo Game, an urban legend centered around historical atrocities that occurred in the Bronx, might be more than just a legend. As Raquel and Charlize grow closer during the course of their search, they learn about the horrors that shaped the community they love. Certain decisions made by characters--along with the central game itself--feel a bit underdeveloped; regardless, Tirado does an excellent job of portraying the Bronx and its people, especially in depicting the often villainized spiritual practice of Santeria with care. The cast is majority Afro-Latine. A deadly game meets social commentary in an ode to the Bronx. (author's note) (Thriller. 14-18)

COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 1, 2022
Grades 9-12 People have been disappearing in Raquel's neighborhood in the Bronx, and no one seems to care. When her friend's cousin goes missing, only to reappear looking disheveled and disoriented, Raquel and her friends investigate a supposed global game that transports players to the Echo world, where time stands still and monsters lurk. Tirado creatively marries history with horror; scenes in the Echo world create a sense of dread and terror, and they're linked to real-life tragedies by way of urban legends. The urban-legend angle is engrossing, and though the ties linking the realistic events to the nightmare world feel underdeveloped, they do still emphasize the resilience of the diverse Bronx community. While the eerie stories play a large role in the novel, Tirado also explores the messiness of teenage emotions and relationships, as Raquel's friendships are tested and her feelings toward her friend Charlize intensify. Tirado's unsettling debut is a love letter to the Bronx and the community that makes it. The perfect pick for horror lovers still looking for a light at the end of the tunnel.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 11, 2022
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.

June 1, 2022

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

Copyright 2022 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2022
In this horror novel grounded in a real-world setting, sixteen-year-old Raquel's life is upended when her friend disappears -- part of a pattern of unexplained disappearances -- and her mother is hospitalized due to a mysterious illness. Raquel is tormented by apparitions that lead her to understand that an evil force, "the Slumlord," is holding and "warping" many of the things she holds dear in a suspended state of reality that can be accessed only through a viral online challenge. As Raquel tries to save her mom, she and her friends risk everything to find answers. Along the way, she begins to understand who she is as a young queer woman and as part of a lineage of Dominicans who have stood up to injustice. Tirado's inventive imagination provides a heart-rending parable (including scenes of violence and trauma) that utilizes fantasy and spiritualism to cultivate a deeper understanding of systemic disenfranchisement of Dominican and other Afro-Latine immigrant communities. The author (a nonbinary Afro-Latine Bronx native) has personal connections that inform the thoughtful, creative depiction of lived experiences that many readers will find relatable. The sounds, smells, spirits, and shadows of the Bronx are vividly portrayed with lively language, making the fantastical seem totally possible. Nicholas A. Brown

(Copyright 2022 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2022
In this horror novel grounded in a real-world setting, sixteen-year-old Raquel's life is upended when her friend disappears -- part of a pattern of unexplained disappearances -- and her mother is hospitalized due to a mysterious illness. Raquel is tormented by apparitions that lead her to understand that an evil force, "the Slumlord," is holding and "warping" many of the things she holds dear in a suspended state of reality that can be accessed only through a viral online challenge. As Raquel tries to save her mom, she and her friends risk everything to find answers. Along the way, she begins to understand who she is as a young queer woman and as part of a lineage of Dominicans who have stood up to injustice. Tirado's inventive imagination provides a heart-rending parable (including scenes of violence and trauma) that utilizes fantasy and spiritualism to cultivate a deeper understanding of systemic disenfranchisement of Dominican and other Afro-Latine immigrant communities. The author (a nonbinary Afro-Latine Bronx native) has personal connections that inform the thoughtful, creative depiction of lived experiences that many readers will find relatable. The sounds, smells, spirits, and shadows of the Bronx are vividly portrayed with lively language, making the fantastical seem totally possible.

(Copyright 2022 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)