Tomorrow’s Journal

Cancilla (Disneyland for Vampires) falters with this clunky mix of supernatural and apocalyptic horror. A snarky, unnamed teen girl is skeptical when she finds an aged journal that’s supposedly been in her family for decades. The entries tell her that she will be communicating with someone via writing in the journal and that she must follow the mysterious author’s instructions exactly while never, ever looking ahead. The writer gives the teen step-by-step instructions that seem designed to shape important events in her life and to prevent a horrible event. Eventually, she learns that she’s communicating with herself a few months in the future. Additionally, terrifying beings called Patrons have come into the world as a result of an explosion at a lab called Icon-Higgs and are causing mayhem, but to what end? The existence of magic is indicated, as is the possibility of some sort of societal collapse to come, but Cancilla fails to tie the elements together into a cohesive whole, and the abrupt conclusion is more confusing than illuminating. There’s nothing here that hasn’t been done better elsewhere. (July)