The third volume of the Doomsday Archives series brings us back to New Rotterdam, a contender for one of America’s Most Haunted Cities, and to the three friends—Emrys, Hazel, and Serena—who have been given magic relics to combat forces of evil. Serena, who has two dads, is the lead protagonist of this volume.
The story opens as a student in the nearby high school dies in mysterious circumstances, after posting an uncharacteristic and homophobic online rant. Serena isn’t happy that he was targeting families like hers, but she soon picks up on clues that indicate larger forces were at work. It seems that a mysterious online video game streamer named Shadowglass is attracting talented young people and then somehow influencing them to do and say awful things before they die. Serena’s heightened awareness of occult forces indicates that something is going on here that she and her friends have the powers to address. They begin to gather clues—but can they stop Shadowglass before Serena’s brother becomes the next victim?
This is a gripping, fast-paced mystery with a good dose of creepiness. Several characters die in it, but there is little gore; all told, it feels appropriate for middle grade readers who like the horror genre—and they’re likely to love it.
The book does a good job, too, of exploring some of the everyday microaggressions that kids of LGBTQ parents may experience, and the feelings that Serena has about being a Black girl with two dads at a traditional, mostly White private school, where people were often reminding her that she didn’t have the option of fitting in. I appreciate that authors Zack Loran Clark and Nick Eliopulos have woven this in to create an authentic-feeling character, without making the entire story “about” her marginalized identities (an important topic, but one that doesn’t need to be the focus of every story with a marginalized character). There’s also a nice message in the story about whether we approach the world around us with cynicism and division or love and cooperation.
As in previous volumes, the worldbuilding and plot are enriched with interstitial excerpts from the New Rotterdam Wiki Project, the online community that tracks the city’s strange history and happenings, and with black-and-white illustrations by Julian Callos (though this is very much a middle grade novel, not a picture book).
Clark and Eliopulos do a good job of recapping key points from previous volumes that explain how Serena and friends got their powers and mission, but readers will likely want to read the other two volumes first. And although this volume wraps up well, there are indications that more adventures in New Rotterdam will be forthcoming. Put the whole recommended series on your reading list.
Emrys and Hazel are White; Serena is Black. Another character, Nisha, was mentioned in a previous volume as having a trans mother and being bisexual herself; she appears in a secondary role here, but it seems the series may be setting her up for a larger role in a future volume.
