THE TRESPASSERS

A teen finds herself in moral and legal turmoil.

Eighteen-year-old Finley Dunn became fast friends with Mya Green, River Madden, and Eli Kalluk in preschool. Four years ago, following a shootout that left Finley’s and River’s fathers dead, Finley and her mom fled Anchorage for Los Angeles. But Finley’s grandmother has died and bequeathed Finley her house, so she’s back in Alaska. Her return fuels Mya’s fears that her presence could shake loose a secret that would make their friendships implode. The secrets multiply when Mya throws a drug-fueled party at a house her real estate agent mom is showing. Finley injures Jason Walker, a homeless man sheltering there, who then disappears. Finley’s wracked with guilt, especially because she and her mom experienced homelessness in L.A. To keep them all out of trouble, Mya must conceal the crime—and keep Finley from confessing. As the search for Jason intensifies, Finley’s increasingly conflicted first-person narration explores such issues as justice, peer pressure, and housing insecurity (which is portrayed with great nuance). In third-person chapters, Mya scrabbles to keep her secrets under wraps. Flashbacks to four years prior build to shocking revelations. Unfortunately, despite a suspenseful premise, the expository narration and underdeveloped characters dampen the story’s emotional impact. Mya’s cold affect feels particularly two-dimensional despite the author’s attempts to show her family’s struggles and dysfunction, and readers may find Finley’s susceptibility to Mya’s influence frustrating. Most characters read white, and Eli’s surname cues him as Indigenous.

Disappointingly uneven.