CONDEMNED

Three high schoolers attempt to understand the death of their friend in this YA paranormal thriller.

Jared Smith was popular among his classmates, from the moment he moved to town in the second grade right up until the summer before his senior year. Then things changed: “On the first day back to school, Jared was noticeably different from his usual friendly, outgoing self. He was moody and withdrawn. He shunned people and avoided the social circle he’d once been a prominent member of. In fact, he acted as if he didn’t want friends at all.” It is those unwanted friends—especially the trio of Conner Preston, Adam Wheeler, and Trevor Helms—who are most thrown when they learn, a few months into the school year, that the recently expelled Jared is dead. Their confusion is deepened when they learn that Jared’s family, which has just left town, believes he died as a result of being possessed by the devil. The story quickly spreads, and soon competing teams of paranormal investigators arrive in town to cover the possession. The three boys are anxious to clear Jared’s name and get to the bottom of his mysterious death, but to do so, they’ll have to confront the week they spent with their pal in a lakeside cabin the previous summer. In other words, the week they stopped being friends. The novel’s premise is a strong one, and Renna’s depiction of the teenage characters—particularly the ways they bristle against the perceived expectations of adults—is well executed. Unfortunately, there’s a stiffness to the prose that often flattens the players and their dialogue: “Hailey Brooks headed their direction with her constant companion, Jasmine, and another friend of theirs, Miguel. All smiles and shining, shoulder-length blonde hair, she was one of the prettiest girls in the senior class. Sitting, Hailey purred, ‘Hey, boys.’ ” The tale marries classic tropes of the exorcism genre with heartfelt issues of adolescence, which provide the story with an unexpected emotional depth. There are clichéd or saccharine moments that temporarily break the spell, but overall the book delivers on the promises of the setup.

A sometimes-wooden but mostly entertaining friendship tale with elements of horror and suspense.