THE UNSPOKEN

Allison, one of six children who survived the mass suicide of a cult five years before, returns home when one of the other survivors is found drowned on dry land. The teens haven’t seen each other since the fire that claimed their families’ lives, and the death of the cult leader’s son doesn’t provoke a heartwarming reunion. One by one, the teenagers die in horrific and unexplained ways: blinded, burnt alive, dismembered. Allison believes the deaths were predicted by their long-gone cult leader as the harbinger of world’s end. As old mysteries are revealed, motivations make less and less sense—these flat characters clearly act only to further the horror. The cult story line is an acceptable vehicle for a stock magical thriller, but that’s all it provides. For a richer story of teen survival among cultists, stick with Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville’s Armageddon Summer (1999). (Fiction. 13-15)