Kathleen Karr (Children's Literature)
Hang on tightly to your Brothers Grimm! Goldilocks morphs into Medusa--the hip teen variety--in Neal Shusterman’s latest addition to his “Dark Fusion” series of updated fairytales. On his fifteenth birthday, Parker (aka “Baby Baer”) finds his new neighbor Tara sleeping in his bed. After also wrecking the calibrations on his father’s ergonomic chair and eating his little sister’s favorite cereal, the connection is obvious-- too bad this Goldilocks’s tresses are closer to writhing snakes. With the aplomb of a teenage goddess, Tara soon takes over Parker and his private school. When kids begin turning into statues, Parker has to take a stand. Shusterman has a gothic-quirky, Stephen Kingish-sort of mindset that he lets loose with glee. He delivers, too, creating genuine chills up the spine for all those young readers who cut their eye-teeth on R.L. Stine. 2005, Dutton Children’s Books, $15.99. Ages 10 to 14.

Sheilah Egan (Children's Literature)
Only an author of Shusterman’s caliber could so deftly combine Goldilocks and Medusa in a page-turner of a novel. Do not be fooled into thinking that this is just another of the popular “re-tellings” of recent times; this book has the feel of real contemporary fiction. Despite the high-school setting, it is appropriate for middle school readers. Young teens will pick up on some of the playfulness early on. Fourteen-year-old, Parker Baer finds someone sleeping in his bed shortly after his father discovers that “someone has been sitting in my chair” (dad’s complaints stem from the fact that the electronic chair’s ergonomic adjustments have been tampered with) and his sister has begun to wail that “someone” has been eating her special cereal. But the someone is definitely not Goldilocks, even though she does have strikingly curly, golden tresses. The Baer’s new neighbor, Tara, is quite unusual and very capable of twisting people around her fingers just as her cork-screw curls twist around her head. Mythology buffs will catch on to the numerous references and even those not so familiar with the great Greek stories will soon recognize that Tara is more than she seems to be. Parker’s high school friends are all under her “spell” but Parker seems to have her special attention. He does meet a wood carver who refreshes his memory of the story of Perseus and Medusa--which fills in the gaps for those who slept through Greek Myths in school--and tries to warn him of the dire consequences of looking into her eyes. Tara always wears sunglasses, because of an alleged eye problem--the eye problem is what affects other people. Shusterman gives this age-old story a fresh, new telling and gives Medusa a new hair-do at the same time. The fast pace and realistic teen interaction will make this book a hit and just might send readers scurrying to the library to research the original story of the snake-haired lady. 2005, Dutton, $15.99. Ages 12 up.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 2005 (Vol. 73, No. 8))
Goldilocks and the Three Bears doesn't blend well with the story of Medusa, but suspense keeps this thriller going until the end. Ultra-rich Parker Baer has everything he could ever want, except an escape from ennui. Perhaps new neighbor Tara will provide some excitement. Tara Herpecheveux, whose head is covered with glowing, golden, dreadlock-like curls of hair, wants Parker to introduce her to kids all over school. Oddly, the students who are granted Tara's attention become lethargic, gray and apathetic. Tara seems to be sucking the life from them, even while she grants new energy and charisma-and curls of hair like her own-to Parker. Parker's new snakelike coiffure gives him power, but also gives him a terrible vampiric hunger for human life. Though there's nothing appealing about the thoroughly flat characters, the tension-filled climax puts a fascinating twist on the traditional way to defeat a gorgon. 2005, Dutton, 176p, $15.99. Category: Fantasy. Ages 11 to 14. © 2005 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Paula Rohrlick (KLIATT Review, May 2005 (Vol. 39, No. 3))
A spoiled-rotten 14-year-old named Parker Baer (bear, get it?) finds his life changed forever when a mysterious new neighbor shows up in his bed (even though he's not in it at the time). Tara has strange blond curls and always wears mirrored sunglasses, and Parker finds that he is irresistibly drawn to her, even when he realizes that she just toys with people--and worse. He becomes her lackey and introduces people at their fancy private school to her, and then watches them develop strange cravings and grayish skin tones, then slowly become petrified and die. Parker sees the upside, of course, as Tara is a great weapon to turn on his enemies. But when his brother and sister become her victims, and he realizes that he himself is becoming a monster like Tara, Parker knows that he must stop her. But how, and what must he sacrifice? This updated melding of the tales of "Goldilocks" and Medusa, from the author of many other novels for YAs in various genres, is a fast-moving, spine-chilling story that horror and fantasy lovers will relish. Upcoming titles in Shusterman's new Dark Fusion series include Red Rider's Hood and Duckling Ugly. (Dark Fusion) Category: Hardcover Fiction. KLIATT Codes: JS--Recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2005, Penguin, Dutton, 176p., $15.99. Ages 12 to 18.

Chris Goering (The ALAN Review, Winter 2006 (Vol. 33, No. 2))
A modern day telling of the medusa myth, this fantasy thriller is sure to engage readers and leave them with an unfamiliar, unforeseen ending. As the protagonist Parker Baer dredges through upper class suburban life, he meets a mysterious new neighbor--Tara--in his bedroom, uninvited, one afternoon. The two become fast friends, but something doesn’t add up for Parker. Several people who have come in contact with Tara seem to be dying as noted by their pale, almost gray, complexions and physical rigidity. Parker begins a detective style search for the truth but is he too late? Readers from seventh grade and up will happily read this page-turning book and make connections to the medusa myth and common fairytales. Category: Coming of Age/Friendship. YA--Young Adult. 2005, Penguin Putnam, 176 pp., $15.99. Ages young adult.Manhattan, KS

Krista Hutley (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, June 2005 (Vol. 58, No. 10))
In fourteen-year-old Parker's family, affection is indicated with expensive presents, and Parker has everything he could ever want; as a result, he is incredibly bored. In fact, his whole town is full of the rich and the idle--the perfect place for Tara, the new girl at school, to find willing victims. Mysterious and alluring, always hidden behind sunglasses, Tara insinuates herself into the different cliques at school, choosing individuals to alternately befriend and discard. Parker, like others, finds her exciting, even when her jilted friends come down with a strange illness that turns them to stone. However, she seems to have her eye on Parker for a different reason--could it be that she wants a companion? This Medusa story (first entry in the Dark Fusion series) ignores most of the original to create a different mythos, one where wealth leads to an insatiate, unfulfilled existence that mirrors Tara's beguiling power: "If there's anything I've learned, it's that wealth hardens people. Turning them to stone is easy--they're already halfway there." Parker's reflective comments show that he is looking back on events, and perhaps that is the reason for his unusually prescient feelings of Tara's unspoken menace; because of this continual foreshadowing, however, it will come as a shock to readers that Parker is surprised when he (much later than readers) makes the link between Tara and the illness. However, Parker's attraction to the intensity Tara represents is believable as it spirals out of control and he becomes first her willing henchman, then a Gorgon himself, while the result of their eventual showdown is pure poetic justice. While not the most subtle retelling, this is an interesting spin on a familiar mythological monster. (Reviewed from galleys) Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2005, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2005, Dutton, 176p, $15.99. Grades 6-9.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Fall 2005)
Tara, a glamorous new classmate with snakelike hair, is sucking the life out of Parker Baer's friends, turning them to stone. A tightly plotted blend of fairy tale and myth (Goldilocks meets Medusa), this unabashedly moralistic novel chillingly portrays the hollowness of wealth and the horror of immortality (without the benefit of much character development). (Dark Fusion series). Category: Older Fiction. 2005, Dutton, 164pp, 15.99. Ages 12 to 14. Rating: 4: Recommended, with minor flaws.

Brandon Digwood (The Kutztown University Book Review, Spring 2006)
This is the delightful first book in Shusterman's Dark Fusion series, a set of thrillers which merge mythology and fairy tales into modern world thrillers. Parker Baer is a spoiled rich kid who is bored out of his mind with having it all. But when Tara, an exotic new neighbor, moves in, his life has a new zest. He does not realize, and then tries to deny, the changes she is causing to the kids in his school...like their unnatural cravings for milk and dirt...or the way they are slowing down before his eyes. Nor does he notice the changes Tara is making in him, as he slowly becomes like her. Shusterman always seems to give the characters in his books a unique slant on how things are, and this is no exception. This unique blend of the Three Bears fairy tale with the mythology of Gorgons has created a totally unique work that leaves me eager for more books in the series. The main characters really change in the story, even if they do not always do so in a positive way. Some of the side characters are kind of flat, and the plot and some other elements of the story can be kind of creepy, but I think that will appeal to the adolescent male readers this book will draw in. Kids will really be able to relate to how Parker is drawn into Tara's evil world until he cannot get out, and the readers of the Cirque du Freak and other such creepy series will want to join him in his ordeal. Category: Fantasy, Thriller. 2005, Dutton Children's Books, $15.99. Ages 13 to 18.

James Blasingame (VOYA, June 2005 (Vol. 28, No. 2))
When a mysterious girl named Tara Herpecheveux moves into the huge unoccupied mansion next door to fourteen-year-old Parker Baer, he finds her more than a little eccentric; in fact, he thinks that she is beyond bizarre. Tara does not believe that the rules of polite society apply to her, and she is immune to peer pressure or any of the normal self-doubt of adolescence. Tara, whose golden dreadlocks sometimes seem to writhe with life and whose sunglasses seem never to come off, appears to be above everyone and everything around her. As Tara insinuates herself into the lives, social and otherwise, of the prominent and insignificant alike, her interactions leave her schoolmates deeply disturbed, even physically deteriorating. There is something deadly about her gaze. Several early clues about turning living creatures to stone and having lived in Greece soon give way to a full-fledged admission that Tara is no teenager at all; she is one of the three deadly Gorgon sisters whose gaze turned mortal creatures to stone in ancient Greek mythology. But even Gorgons get lonely, and Tara has a perverse sort of a crush on Parker. She would love to give him life everlasting if he will just accept that human beings are not worthy of love or concern, but Parker does not approve of the stony look Tara has given his brother, sister, and classmates. How does a not-so-mere mortal lock horns (or looks) with Medusa? The ending is a true d(r)eadlock. This book is appropriate for any age, but it will be more fun for students who have studied Greek mythology enough to pick up on the clues and get in on the fun. VOYA CODES: 4Q 4P M J (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Broad general YA appeal; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9). 2005, Dutton, 164p., $15.99. Ages 11 to 15.