Haunting and mesmerizing.
After two sisters commit suicide, the boy next door traces the notes one left behind for him.
Ben Lattanzi, a white teen toiling in small-town Massachusetts, receives a letter from Mira Cillo seven days after she and her sister, Francesca, died. They were found at the bottom of the quarry lake, tangled together. Compounding the tragedy, their cousin Connie Villela had passed away only months before. In her letter, Mira tells Ben that everyone wanted to touch her and Francesca and that by going to the seven locations he touched her, he’ll discover the truth. Ben, known as sensitive due to a public childhood trauma, becomes enamored with the notion of reconnecting with Mira, whom he briefly dated but long adored. Soon he realizes the story Mira wants to tell isn’t about her—it’s about her sister and the months leading to their fatal fall. Mira, Francesca, and Connie, all white, were bonded by shared blood and would do anything for each other. Through a haze of longing, Ben finds out just what that means as he pieces together Mira’s last messages. Told through both Ben’s and the girls’ perspectives, the mystery unfolds with aching precision—both Ben’s grief and the sisters’ pain can be acutely traced as they grow. Even though the truth can be seen before it’s revealed, the girls’ secrets pack a gut punch that lingers.
Haunting and mesmerizing. (Fiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: Feb. 21, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-374-30059-3
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A surprise-filled thriller unfolding in an evocatively spooky setting.
Opening night at a new murder-themed amusement park attraction turns into a deadly race against an unknown assailant.
Billie Cooper, a recent high school graduate, has just received a promotion at Californialand, the theme park celebrating her home state where she’s worked for two years. Now she’s a ride operator in Murder Land, a new section inspired by infamous Southern California crimes. But Billie’s first night goes off the rails when a fellow employee dies on her ride. Determined to prove it was natural causes and not her fault, Billie teams up with her friend—and one-time hookup—Leon, her best friend, Grace, and Grace’s girlfriend, Sawyer. Together they uncover disturbing truths about the park’s hidden history. As the events of the night unfold, the stakes rise, and someone else dies. The story includes transcripts from a YouTube series detailing the park’s history and conspiracy theories tied to the property. While some plot points stretch believability, the theme-park setting adds to the intrigue. The diverse cast includes Billie, a queer Jewish protagonist with a rebellious streak, white-presenting Grace, who wants to pursue film studies, Korean Canadian Sawyer, who speaks French and is into hacking, and Leon, who’s queer, cued white, and an engineering student. The atmospheric backdrop sets this work apart from similar stories. Fans of Natasha Preston and Eireann Corrigan will appreciate the fast-paced plot and compelling twists.
A surprise-filled thriller unfolding in an evocatively spooky setting. (map) (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781464226540
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Enticing and original.
Abandoned by her sisters, Io Ora must trust Bianca—former mob queen, now dying wraith—to help her find the hidden gods and end them forever in this duology closer that follows Threads That Bind (2023).
Io and Bianca cross mudflats that harbor deadly chimerini and dodge the violent, unpredictable tides that flood the Wastelands, where humans have struggled to survive ever since the Collapse shattered the moon into three pieces. The youngest of the Moirae-born (sisters with Fates-like powers), Io is able to see the threads governing every human fate in the Quilt. She can end a life simply by cutting another’s life-thread, but the cost is high: Each time, she must sever one of her own 35 threads. As Bianca traverses anarchic wastes and dangerous urban slums ruled by powerful gangs on the way to their destination, the teeming city-nation of Nanzy, she weakens but pushes on. Despite setbacks and betrayals, the two discover unexpected allies willing to risk their lives to confront the gods. Io’s personal evolution, like the Moirae’s silver threads, is woven seamlessly into the complicated plot. While her romance with Edei is satisfying, the story’s emotional driver is the sisters’ difficult history of loss, longing, pain, and betrayal; each bears scars from their old, set-in-stone rivalries. Io’s world has an epic thematic scope and an intricately imagined setting. The characters are diverse in appearance, gender identity, and sexual orientation.
Enticing and original. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: June 18, 2024
ISBN: 9780593528747
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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