As a product of the 1980s, I am always a sucker for a story with a ton of 1990s nostalgia. Nicolina Torres blends mystery, thriller, time travel, and horror into a story chock-full of references from my childhood with Night of the Mallrats. A tale that is haunting, but also has an emotional core, and how life might not turn out the way you had hoped.
Colleen’s life feels as hollow as the abandoned Beechnut Mall—the 90s hangout where neon lights and endless laughter defined her teens thirty years before. When her old high school clique reassembles for one last night of rebellion inside the now condemned building, she joins them, never expecting the mall to give something back. The reunited friends do not know that inside its darkened halls, the past is waiting, and it’s not all Glamour Shots, Beanie Babies, and Lisa Frank.
Faced with their lost youth, they are drawn back into the mystery of Beth Packard—a schoolmate who vanished in 1994—and without warning, they find themselves transported to the mall in its heyday on the very night Beth disappeared. Thrust back three decades, the former mallrats must unravel the secrets hidden beneath memories, lies, and betrayals before time snaps shut around them. But each step closer to the truth of Beth’s disappearance brings them within reach of exposing ugly, fatal truths about each other.
I live in the greater Bangor, Maine area, where our mall, the Bangor Mall, has been slowly falling by the wayside in depressing fashion. This, along with my childhood mall, The Fox Run Mall in Newington, New Hampshire, recently being demolished and being a teen in the 1990s had me even more interested in this mystery-thriller. The chance to travel back to 1994 and solve the mystery of their missing friend, what an experience that would be.
What I expected entering Night of the Mallrats was a straight-forward tale where these friends travel back in time somehow to walk around in 1994, solving the disappearance, but what Torres delivers is something a bit different. The book dives back-and-forth between the past and present a little as the mystery is set to be solved from both timelines. Despite what I had expected, a lot of time spent in 1994, the story really unfolds mostly in the present. This confused me a bit, but still had moments where I was on the edge of my seat. I understand the decision made by the author, and it may work extremely well for some, but for me made hard to follow on occasion. The plus-side is that it didn’t take away from the wonderful reveal towards the end, and was enjoyable throughout.
When the group of teens sneak into the abandoned Beechnut Mall I got the vibe of The Losers’ Club from Stephen King’s IT, an accomplishment for this author on its own. Not the moments in IT when the club is younger, but when they return to Derry as adults and discuss how life has been since the terrifying events of their past. This feeling was the ultimate reason I wanted to fiercely turn the pages of Night of the Mallrats and find out more. The mystery, nostalgia, and looking back at life, maybe not having lived it to the fullest or where you had expect to be in this moment.
Torres does dive into how you can’t really be who you want to be as a teenager and how it can really affect how life progresses from there in Night of the Mallrats. Parents tell you who and when you can date, who you can really be is set by society and those around you, and even those you know as friends might not always have your back. The author crafts characters that really made me care for them and understand where they are coming from, even if their teen years differed from mine. One thing we did have, the mall is not what it used to be.
Night of the Mallrats is a journey back to the 1990s where the mall was the place to be, but for some maybe should’ve been avoided. Nicolina Torres captures that strange feeling of looking back at who you were as a teenager and wondering how much of that person is still with you decades later. The book may not have been exactly the trip back to 1994 that I expected, but it was haunting and nostalgic mystery that shows growing older can sometimes be as terrifying as something lurking inside an abandoned mall.
Night of the Mallrats hits bookstores everywhere on October 6, 2026 from Harper Perennial. The audiobook, narrated by a full cast, is available via Libro.fm!
