Snowed

Gr 8 Up-Charity, a biracial, robot-building math whiz, is an atheist who does not fit in at her new school in a conservative small town. After she forms the Skeptics Club, she deals with extreme bullying for her beliefs. Then, the ringleader of "Bullies for Jesus" is found brutally killed, apparently mauled by a wild beast. Charity and her new friends from Skeptics Club become "monster hunters" as they try to find out what happened. Meanwhile, Charity discovers that Aidan, a teenage runaway whom her family is fostering, is actually is the son of Santa Claus. Santa's true name, it turns out, is Krampus, and he and his creepy elves are coming to take Aidan home. The character motivations in this holiday horror offering are at times unclear. Charity's drug-dealing brother, Charles, has an inexplicable hatred toward Aidan, while Charity in return has no feelings for her brother and is all too happy for him to be arrested. In addition, the Christian characters sometimes veer into caricatures of homophobic bullies, while pop culture references are fun but could become dated. Still, the fantasy elements are fully imagined, and the unique premise may attract horror fans, who will appreciate the teens' creative solutions for fighting the villains.