A MARK IN THE ROAD

A teenager gifted with clairvoyant visions tries to rescue a missing woman while on a road trip with his lifelong crush.

Mason, a recent high school graduate living in Naperville, Illinois, has experienced strange visions since he was a child, visions triggered by vehicles’ skid marks on roads. His power is so peculiarly specific that it borders on the inadvertently comical: “For every tire track he drove over, he felt each moment as he saw it. He saw the screams, the wide eyes, the white knuckles. He felt the fear, the confusion, the shock. Those moments were real, a part of someone’s life, someone’s history, and they became part of his.” The power fills Mason with unease, so he keeps it to himself; his best friend from childhood, Addie, thinks he just has a creative ability to concoct richly detailed stories spontaneously. Mason loves Addie, though he’s unsure if the feeling is mutual, and he takes a road trip with her to her new home in Nevada. He’s not only anxious about her departure, but also about an article he recently read about a missing woman, Kenna Cook, who vanished one night after her car broke down. Mason learns that skid marks were found at the scene and feels a responsibility to help find her, though he worries about what Addie will think. In this YA novel, Burrell thoughtfully renders Mason’s double sense of alienation: Not only is he grappling with adolescence, but he has a weird, uncontrollable supernatural ability. His relationship with Addie is also tenderly and realistically portrayed. The novel tends toward the earnest and sentimental, and the author’s writing style can be bland. This is an intelligent depiction of teenage life, however, made ever more dramatic with a crime story and an element of the supernatural.

An affecting teen drama with an affable hero.