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From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)

In a not-too-distant future in which current societal and natural threats, from economic disparity and racism to climate change, are further heightened, Karloff Country is a Disneyesque resort in Virginia providing escape. Many Karloff Country employees, including teenage Jay and his family, are BIPOC. Jay (Black) takes pride in his work and is grateful for the economic and food security Karloff Country provides for his family; he dismisses his friend Zeke’s accusations of devious intentions by the billionaire owner. But when the global situation grows dire, it becomes clear that Karloff Country’s true purpose isn’t vacation destination; it’s safe haven when society unravels. Even worse, the company orchestrated events leading to sudden global crisis. Employees aren’t given the choice to stay or leave; they’re needed to serve the mostly white uber-wealthy Karloff Country “Trustees” who’ve flooded to the resort. As unreasonable demands and racist microaggressions escalate, employee behavior is controlled with painful punishments delivered via an un-detachable armband; then comes the sanctioned lynching. Jay’s girlfriend, Seychelle, biracial granddaughter of the Karloff founder, occupies an uncomfortable space, privileged and wealthy but regularly disparaged by her grandfather for her Blackness. Jay can’t believe she knew about the plan, and when he joins the underground activist group that is fighting back, he must decide if he can trust her. Most of this enthralling, unsettling, provocative story is from Jay’s perspective, his turmoil palpable as his worldview takes a 180-degree turn.  (Age 14 and older)

CCBC Choices 2023 © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2023. Used with permission.

From Horn Book

November 1, 2022
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. Dean Schneider

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

From School Library Journal

Starred review from October 1, 2022

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

Copyright 2022 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

From Booklist

September 15, 2022
Grades 9-12 Giles' latest YA, after Not So Pure and Simple (2020), spotlights how quickly society can lose its humanity. The U.S. is rapidly changing thanks to unchecked climate change; food is scarce, and humankind is running out of options. The lucky ones find employment with Karloff Country, a corporation famous for its animated feature films and world-class resorts. Jay and his family are a few of those lucky ones. With a hearty supply of food and stable work, Jay can't imagine ever leaving--that is, until the world ends. In this attention-grabbing, survivalist horror, Giles does not shy away from violence (which can be unsettling, perhaps even excessive at times), but he keeps the characters at the heart of the novel and includes overarching discussions of race and class. Thanks to the novel's alternating perspectives from Jay and his friends, readers can get a sense of the different residents of Karloff Country and their bravery in the face of oppression. Teens who love the Purge franchise movies are the perfect audience for this.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

From Kirkus

Starred review from July 15, 2022
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)

COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

From Publisher's Weekly

July 11, 2022
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 12â€"up. Agent: Jamie Weiss Hilton, Andrea Brown Literary.

From Horn Book

July 1, 2022
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.

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

From AudioFile Magazine

Karl T. Wright takes the mic, supported by Imani Parks and P.J. Ochlan, in this tale of a haven turned hellscape. For teen protagonist Jay and the other resident workers--mostly people of color--the Karloff Country theme park and resort has been an oasis from the destabilizing effects of climate change. Wright expertly evokes Jay's growing horror, shared by listeners, as he realizes they are now effectively enslaved, subject to the often brutal whims of the Karloffs and their billionaire friends. Ochlan dials the unction up to 11 in the interspersed snippets of Karloff PR that provide ironic counterpoint. Parks, voicing Jay's female friends, is less effective, enunciating individual phrases as discrete declamations with little emotional nuance. In the end, Wright carries this masterful work of Black horror. V.S. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine