Linda M. Castellitto

YA FictionYA

YA rocks the vote

Feature by Linda M. Castellitto

This pair of entertaining and compelling young adult novels confirm that the political is indeed very, very personal.

In our modern era of texts and tweets, video chats and DMs, the telephone-based romance at the heart of Katie Cotugno’s You Say It First is both daring and delightful. High school senior Meg loves her part-time job at WeCount, a nonprofit voter registration center near her home in a Philadelphia suburb. Lately, the gig has also been a haven in the stressful storm of Meg’s life. Her raucously argumentative parents have finally gotten divorced, her mom is drinking way too much, and for some reason, Meg is no longer excited at the thought of going to Cornell with her best friend. It’s a confusing, upsetting time, and Meg feels like she can’t talk to anyone about it.

Then one night at work, Meg makes a fateful call to an Ohio phone number, and recent high school graduate Colby answers. He’s still reeling from his dad’s suicide and might be outgrowing his small town, and he has no idea what to do next. The teens’ first conversation doesn’t go very well. Meg’s an idealist, Colby’s a pessimist; Meg wants to change the world, while Colby thinks change is unlikely and overrated. But where there is conflict, there are also sparks, and the two progress from hourslong phone calls to in-person visits.

Their budding romance has moments of both sweetness and struggle as Meg and Colby challenge each other’s worldviews and navigate their own personal emotional minefields. There’s plenty of delicious interpersonal suspense, not only between Meg and Colby but also in reckonings with their families and friends. Cotugno has crafted some truly touching conversations about family secrets, damaging expectations and reluctant vulnerability. You Say It First is a romantic coming-of-age tale with a politics-infused backdrop that makes a heartfelt case for hope and the belief that incremental changes—just one vote, just one conversation, just one shift in perspective—can make a difference.

Mariana’s father, Florida senator Anthony Ruiz, wants to be president, and he wants Mariana to get on board. In Natalia Sylvester’s Running, 15-year-old Mari’s pleas for privacy in her dad’s increasingly bright spotlight have been dismissed for years.

Mari’s dad been a politician for as long as she can remember. He turns every family outing into a photo op and alternately emphasizes or diminishes their family’s Cuban heritage depending on the whiteness of the audience and its potential appeal to big donors. Mari is proud of her popular and accomplished dad, but she hates public speaking and would love to be anonymous for once—to post what she wants on Twitter and to not be bullied at school because of something her dad said to a reporter.

Running finds Mari hitting a breaking point. She must decide whether she’ll keep bending to her father’s relentless pressure or stand up for her right to make her own choices. And there’s no more time to waste, because the ultimate invasion of privacy is looming: a tour of their family home and an interview with the whole family, broadcast live on national TV.

Readers will be captivated as the tension builds and Sylvester convincingly and movingly plumbs the painful questions Mari is finally able to ask herself: Without her father’s scripts and rules, who is she? Are her parents oblivious to her needs, or are they deliberately ignoring them? Mari realizes that continuing to avoid these questions and accepting what her father says without fact-checking him is no longer an option, especially since the activist group at school wants to know what she thinks about his voting record, and she has no idea what to tell them. But Mari does know this: She cares about other people, she cares about the environment, and it’s looking increasingly likely that she’s sacrificed her privacy and autonomy while her father promotes political policies she disagrees with.

Running’s portrayal of a teen girl’s political and emotional awakening is an invigorating tale of a breakdown that becomes a breakthrough. It’s a timely reminder that to effectively stand up for others, we must first stand up for ourselves.

Two entertaining and compelling young adult novels confirm that the political is indeed very, very personal.
Children's & YAPicture Book

Capturing the excitement, trepidation and curiosity of the first day of school

Feature by Linda M. Castellitto

Four picture books offer encouragement to youngsters as they embark on a thrilling rite of passage: the first day of school.

Give Pearl Goes to Preschool to any reader curious about trying something new but in need of a small, encouraging nudge. Pearl is a confident, energetic, tiara-loving girl who’s more than a bit skeptical when her mom raises the notion of preschool. After all, Pearl already attends daily classes at her mom’s ballet studio, and she even knows how to count (“First position! Second position! Third position!”). What could be better? Well, Mom explains, Pearl can meet kids her own age at preschool, and everyone gets to do finger painting, learn the alphabet and dress up. Pearl talks it over with her friend Violet, a plush mouse clad in a purple tutu, and the two decide that preschool’s worth a try.

Author-illustrator Julie Fortenberry’s painterly art hits the emotional mark. She masterfully conveys Pearl’s impatience, joy, nervousness and relief, as well as Pearl’s mom’s carefully concealed amusement as she negotiates with her spirited kiddo. A muted color palette makes a lovely backdrop for this engaging portrait of a strong parent-child relationship: Pearl feels safe in expressing herself, and her mom’s gentle guidance helps Pearl take ownership over big decisions. Pearl Goes to Preschool is a real treat.

A.E. Ali’s Our Favorite Day of the Year opens as Musa starts kindergarten. Despite what Musa’s teacher says, the boys at his table don’t “look like his friends. They were total strangers.” But Ms. Gupta has a plan: Throughout the year, students will share their favorite holidays as a sort of interactive show and tell (not to mention icebreaker and friendship builder). 

Skepticism melts away as months pass and students treat each other to exciting new experiences. Musa goes first, decorating the classroom for Eid al-Fitr, the holiday at the end of Ramadan, while offering a brief history and sharing delicious treats. “Everyone could see why Eid was Musa’s favorite,” Ali writes. Other students share Rosh Hashanah, Los Posadas and Pi Day, and every time, all the kids agree—they can see why this holiday is the student’s favorite.

Rahele Jomepour Bell’s joyous illustrations make each celebration delightful, and her use of color and texture is impressive, whether she’s capturing a flickering candle or a frilly piñata. Be sure to check out her quiltlike endpapers, too. Readers will revel in this openhearted look at how friendships are easy to form when everyone is willing to share and rejoice in what makes each person unique.

Where’s my classroom? I dropped my backpack! Is that a hamster? I think I know her. What’s for lunch? With spot-on snippets of poetry and illustrations steeped in primary colors, All Welcome Here captures the swirling, frenetic energy of the first day of school. Author James Preller’s linked haiku lead readers through the maze of an exciting, chaotic and often humorous new adventure. A diverse group of children clamors for fresh school supplies (“All the bright new things / Smell like sunrise, like glitter”) and the release of recess (“Can we? Is it true? / Yes, recess. Run, RUN!”). They also consider the scariness of stepping onto a giant yellow school bus for the first time (“It’s dark and noisy / and what if they aren’t nice?”). The effect is sometimes impressionistic and always empathetic. 

Fans of illustrator Mary GrandPré, Caldecott Honoree for The Noisy Paintbox, will be pleased to see her work here. Her collages and paintings, which make clever use of color and pattern, capture both the big splash of a water fountain prank and the engrossed calm of bookworms enjoying library time. Preller dedicates the book to “public school teachers everywhere” and GrandPré to “all young artists,” fitting tributes to those who inspired this spirited whirlwind of first-day jitters and delight.

Debut author-illustrator Anna Kim draws on personal experience in Danbi Leads the School Parade, a charming, moving story about a girl who’s leaping into the unknown not only at a new school but in a new country, too. Danbi and her parents immigrated to the United States from South Korea, and the time has come for Danbi to meet her new teacher, who smiles encouragingly, and a puppy-pile of classmates, who stare at her with curiosity. 

Danbi’s heartbeat is the soundtrack to her determined but unsuccessful attempts to fit in, as she tries new dances and games. She is relieved when lunchtime arrives: “That, I knew how to do!” But when the other kids pull out sandwiches and juice boxes, her crystal dumplings and rainbow drops draw more stares and a big “Wow!” from the group. Ever resourceful, Danbi attempts to teach her classmates to use chopsticks, which turns into a comedy of errors. Pivoting again, she taps her lunchbox with a chopstick and kicks off a wild music-improv session, which then transforms into the magical parade of the book’s title.

In her artwork, Kim’s incredible eye for detail and expert lines evoke the swish of the teacher’s skirt, the trajectory of an errant block and the lushness of little-kid hair. Her characters’ emotions are finely wrought as well: Danbi’s early dismay is as palpable as her eventual thrill at making a new friend. In a touching author’s note, Kim shares her “belief that bridging our differences happens one human being at a time.”

Four picture books offer encouragement to youngsters as they embark on a thrilling rite of passage: the first day of school.

Give Pearl Goes to Preschool to any reader curious about trying something new but in need of a small, encouraging nudge. Pearl is a confident,…

Secrets of the dead

Feature by Linda M. Castellitto

A tangled web, indeed: These two psychological thrillers offer dramatic twists and turns, plus a hearty dose of scandal, as they explore what might happen when a seemingly perfect person is murdered—and those left behind discover the deceptions that lurked beneath the victim’s distractingly charismatic surface.

Can women have it all? Araminta Hall examines that eternally lingering question in all its darkly sexist glory via her new novel, Imperfect Women. The author puts Eleanor Meakins, Nancy Hennessy and Mary Smithson front and center. The three women have been best friends since they were at Oxford together 20 years ago. There, they intertwined their lives and excitedly shared their dreams of the future, but today, two of them are horrified and grieving.

Beautiful, wealthy, possessor-of-a-perfect-family Nancy has been murdered, and Eleanor (devoted to her job, longing for romance) and Mary (beleaguered mother of three, wife to a philanderer) are stunned. But, they wonder, how well did they actually know their friend? The women have grown apart over time; their love for one another remains, but distance and distrust have long been creeping in to their relationships.

Readers who enjoy a challenge will appreciate how deftly Hall paints nearly every character as a viable suspect. Did Nancy’s husband Robert, who pooh-poohed her depression, know she was having an affair? Could said paramour have committed the crime? Was Eleanor jealous enough to do something so terrible? Could Mary’s resentment at her decidedly imperfect life have turned deadly? Each woman takes a turn as unreliable narrator, revealing their deferred dreams and unmet desires, as well as allowing themselves the selfishness and aggravation they don’t reveal to the world. There’s a lot of anger there, too, at disrespectful and self-absorbed men who don’t listen to, appreciate or support the women they profess to love. After all, thinks Nancy, “Women in this world are expected to conform, even if it doesn’t seem like that anymore. What’s wrong with you, men ask as they push forward, why aren’t you happy back there, why isn’t it enough?”

Imperfect Women is an engrossing deep dive into the individual and shared history of a long-term friendship, an acknowledgement of the slow poison of being confined by gender roles, and an exploration of what can happen when reasonable expectations begin to seem sadly unattainable.

On the dedication page of her fourth thriller, Convince Me, author Nina Sadowsky gets right to the point: “This book is for everyone who is sick and tired of the fucking liars and their fucking lies.” Justin Childs sure is a liar—although, as the novel begins, his family and friends have no idea. Rather, they’re mourning his death in a car accident and wondering how they’re going to go on without his charismatic, intelligent, everybody’s-a-friend presence in their lives.

His mother, Carol, loves her son completely and fiercely, and is determined to preserve his legacy of near perfection. His widow, Annie, steels herself to get through the funeral even as she wonders why, after never taking any pills, Justin was found to have Valium in his system. And his best friend and business partner, Will, is left reeling at this grievous loss and its timing—just before the two men were due to launch their tech startup, Convincer Media.

It’s this business-related anxiety that soon disturbs a massive and complex hornets’ nest of lies: Something’s amiss in the financial records, and Convincer’s supposed main investor has never heard of Justin. And that, it turns out, is just for starters. As Annie and Will view their time with Justin through a newly skeptical lens, it dawns on them, inexorably, upsettingly, that they never knew him at all. As Annie muses, “Piecing Justin together is like trying to coax a clear image from a kaleidoscope.”

But they need to ferret out the truth, and fast, because people’s money is at stake and the police are taking an interest. Sadowsky does an excellent job of showing how, bit by careful bit, someone like Justin could fool so many for so long: White lies gone unchallenged lay the groundwork for larger deceptions, and declarations of devotion can be disarming and effective distractions. Convince Me’s tension is often internal, and compellingly so. Readers ride along as the characters confront their own roles in perpetuating the myth of Justin, and decide whether they’re going to succumb to rage or do their best to ensure they won’t get fooled again.

A tangled web, indeed: These two psychological thrillers offer dramatic twists and turns, plus a hearty dose of scandal, as they explore what might happen when a seemingly perfect person is murdered—and those left behind discover the deceptions that lurked beneath the victim’s distractingly charismatic…

Mother knows best?

Feature by Linda M. Castellitto

It’s no secret that motherhood isn’t all cuddles and giggles, but these two new thrillers take things a step (or several) further. They plumb the darker side of maternal instincts via unnerving, slow-burning stories of mothers, daughters and the secrets and lies that sometimes bind them.

Long-buried secrets boil up to the surface in Kate Riordan’s The Heatwave, an unsettling and claustrophobic thriller set in the south of France during a scorchingly hot summer.

Sylvie Durand has pushed her family home, La Reverie, firmly out of mind and memory for 10 years—but in 1993, when she receives a letter notifying her of arson at the empty property, she must return. She does so with great reluctance and deep dread, but her beloved 14-year-old daughter, Emma, is thrilled. She’s always been curious about the place where she was born and lived until she was 4, when her parents divorced after her older sister Elodie’s death at 14.

As Emma explores the crumbling yet grand manse, complete with sparkling pool and rickety barn, Sylvie struggles with her emotions. She’s been keeping secrets about their family for so long, she’s having a hard time feeling safe in the place that was the setting for long-ago traumas. It doesn’t help that the house feels haunted by Elodie, an arrestingly beautiful and dangerously manipulative child whom Sylvie likens to “those Manson girls . . . sloe eyes opening to reveal the void.”

Riordan moves Sylvie’s narration between past and present in the form of an apologia to Emma, slowly and ominously revealing details about the family as she invites musings on the mutability of memory and the ever-fascinating question of nature versus nurture. The novel also turns an unblinking eye on what it’s like to desperately want a mutually loving relationship with your child, and the guilt that arises when it becomes clear that’s likely impossible.

Forest fires flicker on the horizon, the threat edging closer and closer, as Sylvie attempts to sell the house and flee once again, before the truth is no longer able to be denied. The Heatwave is an excellent example of why the saying “you can’t go home again” rings so true. It’s a discomfiting, suspenseful tale that’s sure to delight fans of Lionel Shriver and Daphne du Maurier, as well as of Riordan’s previous book, 2015’s Fiercombe Manor.

Discomfiture takes a different sort of turn in Little Disasters by Sarah Vaughan, author of the bestselling Anatomy of a Scandal. In every group of mom friends, there’s always one—the mother who seems to take everything in stride, remaining endlessly unflappable and upbeat no matter what challenges come her way. Here, that woman is Jess Curtis.

Jess is a well-off stay-at-home parent of three—two school-age boys and 10-month-old baby Betsey—who’s always made motherhood look easy (especially to said mom friends Liz, Mel and Charlotte), even without much support from Ed, her workaholic husband. And so Liz, a senior hospital resident in pediatrics at St. Joseph’s Hospital in West London, is shocked when she’s called to the ER to consult on an infant with a suspicious head injury and realizes the baby is Betsey, brought in by a shifty and evasive Jess. The sequence of events Jess provides doesn’t make sense, but she’d never harm one of her children . . . right?

Vaughan’s tense, twisty drama is told from various points in time, from three points of view: Liz, Jess and sometimes Ed, all of whom realize they don’t know each other as well as they’d thought, all of them afraid of what will be revealed in the search for the truth. From the start, it’s clear that Jess has been suffering from depression and anxiety, exacerbated by sleep deprivation: “The walls push in; the heat bears down and the noise—the terrible crying that has been going on for three hours—engulfs her. . . . She does not know how much more she can bear.”

Suspicion is cast on various players as social workers and police try to separate fact from falsehood, and Liz must contend with her persistent unease as she struggles to reconcile her seemingly conflicting roles of doctor and friend. She also must deal with traumatic memories triggered by the goings-on, including the realization that her own mother, an often cruel alcoholic, may be keeping terrible secrets of her own.

Little Disasters’ slow-reveal rhythms make for a squirm-inducing and thought-provoking examination of friendship, marriage and motherhood.

It’s no secret that motherhood isn’t all cuddles and giggles, but these two new thrillers take things a step (or several) further. They plumb the darker side of maternal instincts via unnerving, slow-burning stories of mothers, daughters and the secrets and lies that sometimes bind them.

…
Children's & YAMiddle Grade

Graphic novels capture middle school in graphic detail

Feature by Linda M. Castellitto

Two middle grade graphic novels navigate the hallways and hormones of tween life.

Ah, middle school. That time of great, exciting change we all must go through, willingly or not, when every day can be thrilling, terrifying or downright weird—all before lunchtime.

Filled with empathy and humor, Jerry Craft’s Class Act is a warm hug of a book that chronicles a school year in the life of aspiring artist and eighth grader Jordan Banks. Jordan starred in Craft’s Newbery Medal-winning New Kid, which followed his first year at the private Riverdale Academy Day School in the Bronx. Now Craft’s focus expands to include Jordan’s best friend, Drew Ellis, and their classmate Liam.

Jordan and Drew deal with typical tween issues, such as Jordan’s insecurities about being smaller (and hilariously, less stinky) than the other kids and Drew’s discomfort with a classmate’s amorous attentions. But as Black kids at Riverdale, they must also contend with racist microaggressions and colorism. Class differences crop up, too. In their neighborhood, Jordan and Drew are teased for being too fancy, but at school, classmates comment on their relative poverty. In an especially compelling storyline, a visit to white, wealthy Liam’s home causes Drew to grapple with conflicted feelings about friendship with someone who lives in a mansion.

Class Act’s modeling of thoughtful communication and its celebration of friendship are appealing and heartfelt. Craft’s expressive characters, strong command of vibrant color and hits of visual humor—including references to popular books in the double-page spreads that open each chapter—are downright delightful.

Twins, written by Varian Johnson and illustrated by Shannon Wright, speaks to a younger experience, opening on the first day of sixth grade for twins Maureen and Francine Carter. Francine is ready to roll, complete with a funky new hat, a plan to run for class president and a determination to go by “Fran” from now on. In contrast, Maureen is anxious about middle school; she and Francine only have a few classes together, and she’s been assigned to Cadet Corps instead of gym class.

As the girls struggle to reconcile their fierce love and strong bond with a new desire to be recognized as individuals, they must also navigate “Jock Mountain” and the “Valley of Burps & Smells.” Maureen finds her footing and learns to stand up for herself, but her decision to run against Francine for class president throws the girls’ relationship even more off balance.

Wright’s art skillfully captures the emotion and physicality of tense car rides, anxiety-inducing classroom scenes and a variety of school hallway hijinks. In his first graphic novel, Johnson, author of the 2019 Coretta Scott King Honor book The Parker Inheritance (and a twin himself!), creates a cast of engaging characters, including a family that’s by turns supportive, frustrated and funny. The lead-up to the election is suspenseful, and Johnson’s depiction of the girls’ parents’ willingness to listen to their daughters is both moving and inspiring. Twins marks an auspicious start to a new series.

Two middle grade graphic novels navigate the hallways and hormones of tween life.

Ah, middle school. That time of great, exciting change we all must go through, willingly or not, when every day can be thrilling, terrifying or downright weird—all before lunchtime.

Filled with…

NonfictionLiteratureAnimals

Treats for cat ladies and cat laddies

Feature by Linda M. Castellitto

Fans of felines will adore these four books, which offer fascinating new perspectives on cats and their indelible influence on our culture. Whether the giftee is a philosopher, artist, behaviorist, epistolist or some fabulous combination thereof, they’ll be thrilled with these edifying, heartfelt tributes to cats.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Cat

Nia Gould’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Cat: The Life and Times of Artistic Felines will be catnip for fans of cats, art, cat puns and expertly rendered illustrations in an impressive range of styles.

This visual feast of a book conjures up feline alter egos for 22 famous artists. For example: What if Frida Kahlo were a black cat with a white unibrow-esque marking, plus a penchant for putting flowers on her head? She’d be Frida Catlo, a specialist in “self-pawtraits.” And what if Pablo Picasso were a beret-wearing gray cat with an unusually shaped head? Why, he’d be Pablo Picatso, “one of art history’s most purr-found influences.”

Each section features a spot-on portrait of the cat artist and a well-researched biography detailing methods and influences, plus gorgeous cat-centric visual homages, from Roy Kittenstein’s dotty pop art to Mary Catsatt’s domesticity-influenced impressionism. Cat lovers and art aficionados will truly find A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Cat (to borrow one of Gould’s words) “mesmeowerizing.”

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: If you think books about cats are great, you'll really love A Cat's Tale, which was allegedly written by a cat.

Cat vs. Cat

Pam Johnson-Bennett knows cats. The professional behaviorist has written multiple bestsellers (such as Think Like a Cat) and starred in an Animal Planet UK TV series called “Psycho Kitty.” Now, with her updated Cat vs. Cat: Keeping Peace When You Have More Than One Cat, she’s ready to help ensure that multicat homes are characterized more by napping and playing than by hissing and errant pooping.

Of course, cats can’t tell us what they’re thinking (as far as we know . . . ), so Johnson-Bennett says it’s up to humans to learn to see things through a cat’s eyes. She points out that, whereas humans view a home as a single territory, a cat sees it as “numerous territories on many different levels, geographic and psychological, and negotiating them is a central part of maintaining cat family harmony.”

Whether readers are bringing a new cat into an existing cat household or just want to learn more about cats’ behaviors, Cat vs. Cat has it covered. It’s impressively researched with lots of suggestions, strategies and support throughout.

Letters of Note: Cats

Shaun Usher’s popular Letters of Note website launched in 2009, and his first compilation was published in 2013. Now cat people will be happy to learn there’s a volume just for them: Letters of Note: Cats.

Usher asserts that letters are “humans’ most precious, enjoyable, and endangered form of communication.” The 30 collected here are entertaining and memorable, not least because they were penned by famous actors, scientists, writers and more.

It’s thrilling to discover that a cat named Máčak was central to Nikola Tesla’s fascination with electricity—and amusing to learn Ayn Rand sent a terse missive to the editor of Cat Fancy. (She noted, “I subscribed to Cat Fancy primarily for the sake of the pictures.”) Other letter writers include Jack Lemmon, Anne Frank and T.S. Eliot, and the letters range from sentimental to satirical, whimsical to a bit rude.

Letters of Note: Cats is a fascinating celebration of the timelessness of cat appreciation and a compelling argument for keeping letter writing alive. As Usher urges, “Rescue your last remaining pen from the cat, and write to someone.”

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Not a cat person? Check out these heartwarming reads about dogs instead.

Feline Philosophy

Whether snoozing in a sunbeam or frenziedly attacking a scratching post, cats live in the moment. And that’s why, John Gray explains in Feline Philosophy: Cats and the Meaning of Life, “Cats have no need of philosophy. Obeying their nature, they are content with the life it gives them.”

But humans are quite the opposite, according to the retired professor and author of several books (notably 2018’s Seven Types of Atheism), because “the human animal never ceases striving to be something that it is not.”

Gray considers happiness, morality and egoism through the lens of philosophers including Decartes, Pascal, Montaigne and Spinoza. He also uses Patricia Highsmith’s short story “Ming’s Biggest Prey” as a jumping-off point for musings on affection. Again, cats have the upper hand (paw): “Cats do not love in order to divert themselves from loneliness, boredom, or despair. They love when the impulse takes them, and are in company they enjoy.”

It’s hard to deny the benefits of such an existence. As Gray asserts in Feline Philosophy, being open to what cats can teach us just might “lighten the load that comes with being human” via less catastrophizing and, one imagines, a lot more naps.

Fans of felines will adore these four books, which offer fascinating new perspectives on cats and their indelible influence on our culture.

Revenge is the thing

Feature by Linda M. Castellitto

Three cat-and-mouse stories are served with a side of simmering rage.

We all know it’s not good to suppress our feelings. These thrillers offer deliciously terrifying examples of what can happen when unresolved grief, anger and longing collide.

In Ellery Lloyd’s People Like Her, the life of Britain’s biggest “mumfluencer” is a grand and glam one. Emmy Jackson’s million-plus followers compliment her every post as she adorably bumbles her way through new motherhood while capably juggling lucrative endorsements.

But Emmy’s online persona is, as her husband Dan puts it, “bullshit.” Unlike most influencers, Emmy doesn’t pretend her life is easier than it is. Instead, as @the_mamabare, she pretends it’s more difficult, because she realizes there’s big money in appearing more hapless and less polished.

It’s a strange state of affairs, and it’s taking a toll on their marriage. Although Dan knows that Emmy’s cleverly crafted fabrications pay the bills, he’s jealous that her posts garner more praise than his first novel (he’s struggling to complete a second) and uneasy about how she increasingly uses their kids as props. And Emmy wishes Dan were more appreciative of her business acumen. What’s the big deal if she posts photos of the kids, as long as she’s paying the bills and ramping up her career?

As readers gradually realize, Dan’s not the only one with doubts. Somewhere out in the real world, an unnamed person is planning to exact revenge on @the_mamabare for living a life she doesn’t deserve. There’s also a new Instagram account posting stolen photos, which feels like a threat: If they have access to her personal pictures, what else do they know about Emmy?

Lloyd (a pseudonym for husband and wife writing team Paul Vlitos and Collette Lyons, interviewed on the facing page) skillfully turns up the tension as the delectable creepiness intensifies. People Like Her is a smart and sobering wake-up call for the internet-dependent that makes an excellent case for keeping a sharp eye on the line between admiration and obsession.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Paul Vlitos and Collette Lyons explore the anxiety-inducing allure of Instagram.

Lila Ridgefield lives with her husband, Aaron Payne, in a lovely house in a pretty town outside Ithaca, New York. Everyone in town loves Aaron, and they think Lila is . . . all right. She’s beautiful, but she’s a little stand- offish, they say, unaware that she’s barely keeping it together after years of Aaron’s controlling behavior and unrepentant gaslighting behind closed doors.

When Darby Kane’s Pretty Little Wife opens, Lila has just discovered that Aaron’s been doing something criminally terrible, and he violently attacks her after sneering that he feels no remorse. So, she kills him.

But that’s not the most shocking part of this story. First of all, Lila is nonplussed when Aaron is declared missing, not dead. Apparently, his body isn’t where she left it, and she has no idea if he’s still alive and plotting her demise. She struggles to appear distraught while eagle-eyed detective Ginny Davis questions her, knowing that one misstep could make her an even more viable suspect than she already is. Ginny knows something’s amiss with Lila, but she can’t prove it yet—and she suspects that Lila is using her skills as a former criminal defense lawyer to bury the investigation in red herrings.

Breathlessly short chapters keep things moving as various games of cat and mouse grow more complex and dangerous. A parade of suspects, all with plausible alibis and motives, will keep readers guessing as the book builds toward its disturbing, nay horrific, conclusion.

Pretty Little Wife explores the consequences of unacknowledged trauma and dares to ask whether murder is ever justified. It’s an exciting departure for HelenKay Dimon, the bestselling romance author for whom Darby Kane is a pseudonym. There’s certainly no guarantee of a happily ever after, though there is hope for hard-won redemption.

Readers who enjoy an atmospheric gothic tale will thrill to Emma Rous’ The Perfect Guests, in which orphaned 14-year-old Beth Soames arrives at Raven Hall in the summer of 1988. She’s been brought to the grand lakeside manor, which “smelled of wood polish and lavender and safety,” as a potential companion for Leonora and Markus Averell’s similarly aged daughter, Nina.

Beth is hopeful the arrangement will prove better than her group foster home, but she’s also exceedingly nervous. Will they like her? Will they let her stay? Those questions underlie her every interaction as she assimilates into the family. She’s constantly aware that one wrong move could mean she’ll be sent away, so she plays along, pretending not to notice when Leonora and Markus begin to act strangely and even acceding to their requests to participate in the occasional fraught charade.

In 2019, Sadie Langton’s acting career just isn’t paying the bills. Her mood lifts when she’s offered a gig at a murder mystery event held at fancy Raven Hall, which has stood empty on the Norfolk coast these last 30 years. High pay seals the deal, and she joins a motley group at the manse, where an elaborate scenario and a fancy meal are soon underway. There’s someone else orbiting the mansion, too, who feels that Raven Hall is destined to be theirs, no matter how they obtain it. Rous lays out clues to this person’s identity with tantalizing judiciousness.

Should Beth follow her instincts about the Averells and flee Raven Hall, or is she overreacting? Is Sadie silly for thinking the murder mystery feels a little too real? Who does Raven Hall belong to, really? Timelines collide and secrets are revealed in gasp-inducing fashion in this Clue meets Agatha Christie page turner from the bestselling author of The Au Pair.

We all know it’s not good to suppress our feelings. These thrillers offer deliciously terrifying examples of what can happen when unresolved grief, anger and longing collide.

YA FictionYA

All the world’s a stage

Feature by Linda M. Castellitto

Teens who live for drama—class, club or otherwise—will give standing ovations to two YA novels centered on stagecraft and what goes on behind the scenes.

Superstition’s the thing in Robin Talley’s The Love Curse of Melody McIntyre. Sure, the Beaconville High School drama club honors traditional theater rituals such as no whistling backstage and saying “Break a leg” instead of “Good luck.” But under perfectionist stage manager Melody McIntyre’s leadership, there’s also an hilariously extensive spreadsheet of additional rituals and “countercurses” the club observes in order to prevent a catastrophe like the ones that’ve plagued BHS in the past (including a run of the Scottish play in which the theater burned down).

This year, the theater’s curse rears its head in particularly dramatic fashion: Melody gets dumped mid-performance by her girlfriend Rachel, the costume crew head, resulting in frantic efforts to handle missed cues and a painful and very personal conversation broadcast over the entire crew’s headsets. Afterward, the crew requests that Melody refrain from dating anyone else until after their upcoming production of Les Misérables has closed. It’s a wacky proposal, sure, but Mel sees their logic. Productions do seem more problem-plagued when she’s in a relationship, and she’s not feeling romantic after the breakup, anyway.

As actors and crew launch into a flurry of auditions, costume construction, lighting strategies and more, and a lovely new classmate who’s a professional actor catches Mel’s eye, Mel struggles to be true to herself without upsetting her friends. Is a problem-free production even possible?

Talley’s attention to detail, from cocoa that doubles as dirt on actors’ faces to the mechanics of various set pieces, is impressive, especially since, per her acknowledgements, she was never in a drama club herself. She also does an excellent, sharp-eyed yet sympathetic job portraying the groupthink that can occur in a tightknit bunch of people who are under great stress with a looming deadline: Everything feels like life or death, and anyone who does something unusual is suspect. The production’s trash-talking actors versus crew dynamic and the relentless countdown to opening night heighten the tension. Readers will delight in having a front-row seat for Talley’s funny, romantic tribute to high school theater in all its glory—both on stage and backstage.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Discover more great reads by YA author Robin Talley.

Audrey Winters’ senior year isn’t going as planned. Instead of swanning around with her beau Milo, she’s depressed in the aftermath of their breakup. She quit her beloved drama class so she wouldn’t have to see him, and she’s been avoiding her friends so she doesn’t have to talk about what happened between them. She’s also upset about the chaos at home. Her father cheated on and left her mother for his pregnant girlfriend a couple of years ago. Now, in the wake of his new insistence on selling their house, her mom’s been drinking too much, and her critical brother Dougie is absolutely no help.

It’s a state of affairs that would make anyone cynical and lonely, but things start to look up in Holly Bourne’s It Only Happens in the Movies when Audrey takes a job at Flicker Cinema in an effort to distract herself from her troubles. Enter her co-worker, Harry the flirty aspiring filmmaker. Multiple people warn Audrey to stay away from Harry, and she’s more than happy to, rejecting his advances with firm and wryly witty determination. Besides, the cinema’s really busy, she’s got to look after her mom and she’s working on a media studies project for school about the beautiful lies told by romantic comedies.

But as Audrey and Harry spend more time together at work and while filming his zombie movie after hours, she finds herself warming to Harry and, to her surprise, thinking that perhaps romance could be possible. Devotees of rom-coms will detect a familiar rhythm here, which is intentional: Bourne’s story follows a traditional romantic comedy arc while also serving as a critique of the genre. Through Audrey, Bourne questions filmmakers’ motivations, the cliches and tropes that have long been accepted and promoted by the genre, and the sexist underpinnings of it all.

It Only Happens in the Movies has a cinematic structure, too, complete with spot-on scene-setting (chapter titles include “The Chance Encounter” and “The Montage”) and character sketches (“The Best Friend Who Only Exists To Be Your Best Friend,” “The Bad Boy Who Changes His Ways Just For You”) that encapsulate essence of this popular genre with winking self-awareness. It’s a rewarding and grounded read with timely social commentary—and some fun with zombies, too.

Teens who live for drama—class, club or otherwise—will give standing ovations to two YA novels centered on stagecraft and what goes on behind the scenes.

Children's & YAPicture BookMiddle Grade

Standing on their shoulders

Feature by Linda M. Castellitto

During Women’s History Month, we celebrate the contributions women have made to our country. These fascinating books about women who dared to dream big—and to act on those dreams—are sure to prompt young readers to follow in their footsteps.

Standing on Her Shoulders

From activists to athletes to ancestors through the ages, it’s important to honor those who came before us, writes Monica Clark-Robinson in Standing on Her Shoulders: A Celebration of Women: “When we remember them and speak their names, / We respect the struggles they overcame.” Her lyrical text makes a strong case for not just learning about historical figures but also thinking about how their accomplishments have impacted our lives today.

In the book’s vibrantly colored pages, illustrated by Laura Freeman, a multigenerational family discusses “women who were little once / just like you” and imagines the day when the children in the book—as well as the kids reading it—might offer their own proverbial shoulders to support future generations. The book highlights a diverse group of groundbreaking women from a range of places and eras, from gymnast Simone Biles and snowboarder Chloe Kim, to artists Frida Kahlo and Faith Ringgold, and politicians Deb Haaland and Hillary Clinton. There are activists (Harriet Tubman), explorers (Sacajawea) and scientists (Harriet Chalmers Adams), too. In the back matter, readers will discover beautiful portraits and brief biographies of the women they’ve met throughout the book.

Standing on Her Shoulders is an excellent resource, sure to serve as a starting point for further research and to help excited readers start planning for their own futures.

Kate's Light

Life as a lighthouse keeper can be grueling and lonely, filled with hard, unending physical labor and isolation. This is particularly true of open-water lighthouses like the one in Kate’s Light: Kate Walker at Robbins Reef Lighthouse by Elizabeth Spires, illustrated by Caldecott Medalist Emily Arnold McCully (Mirette on the High Wire). But it can also be invigorating and rewarding, as it was for Kate Walker. 

Walker emigrated from Germany to the U.S. in 1882 with her son, Jacob, and soon met and married lighthouse keeper John Walker. In 1885, when her husband was posted to Robbins Reef Lighthouse, located on a small island in the middle of the very busy and dangerous New York Harbor, Walker was skeptical. Where would her son play? Wouldn’t the family miss their friends, not to mention being able to walk to other places?

Walker grew to appreciate her unique situation and even became the assistant keeper of the lighthouse. For five years, she and her husband built a lovely, if unconventional, life together. But then John died of pneumonia, leaving Kate and their children worried for their future. Ever resourceful, Walker convinced the lighthouse board to hire her as a permanent keeper. For 33 years, she presided over the lighthouse. She became known for her heroism, carrying out more than 50 rescues, and for her dedication to keeping sailors and ships safe.

Spires, a poet, professor and author of several children’s books, creates a memorable tribute to an indomitable woman and her remarkable life. Walker’s willingness to step into the unknown is thrilling, and McCully’s illustrations add drama and impact to the swashbuckling story. Heavily applied watercolors create a massive thunderstorm on the page, and carefully rendered details will help readers imagine what it’s like to call an island lighthouse home. Kate’s Light is an unusual true story compellingly told.

Legacy

In her new tour de force of a poetry collection, Legacy: Women Poets of the Harlem Renaissance, bestselling author and Coretta Scott King Award winner Nikki Grimes stakes a claim for women in the pantheon of Harlem Renaissance poets.

As Grimes informs readers in her preface, Black women not only created poetry during the Harlem Renaissance but also headed up the publications that featured the male writers we know by name. In pursuit of making these women’s names and contributions known, Grimes has crafted a memorable and compelling volume of poems that pays tribute to the inspiration she has drawn from these women. 

Legacy’s poems follow a complex poetic form called the Golden Shovel, created by the poet Terrance Hayes. In this form, the poet begins by choosing a short poem or an excerpt from a longer poem. The words of this poem become the new poem’s “striking line,” and each word of the first poem becomes the last word in each line of the new poem. It’s an ambitious and fitting form that enables Grimes’ poems to be shaped by the words of the women honored in Legacy. 

Each of Grimes’ poems is preceded by the poem from which its striking line originates. Poems by Mae V. Cowdery, Esther Popel, Gwendolyn Bennett and more speak of beauty, dreams and determination, while Grimes’ work offers sketches of life, celebrates the natural world and declares self-confidence and pride. The book’s artwork, a feast of color that displays a range of techniques and styles, was contributed by 19 female artists including Cozbi A. Cabrera, Nina Crews, Laura Freeman and Jan Spivey Gilchrist.

Grimes lays claim to an amazing artistic legacy on every page, her poetic rejoinders building a stirring call and response. Legacy amplifies the words of these extraordinary poets and offers a road map for carrying them into the future.

The Fearless Flights of Hazel Ying Lee

From the moment she took her first flight in 1932, Hazel Ying Lee knew she was destined to become a pilot. “When the plane landed back on the runway like a skipping rock, Hazel stepped out with only the horizon in her eyes,” writes Julie Leung in her appealing picture book biography The Fearless Flights of Hazel Ying Lee. Lee was determined to make her dream a reality, no matter the obstacles—which included an era rife with racism, the exclusion of women from many professions and a mother who was firmly against the idea of Lee becoming a pilot.

Lee delighted in competition and applied the same vigor to her quest to become a pilot that she showed while racing and swimming with her brothers as a child. She worked as an elevator operator to save up for flying lessons, and when World War II began, she was ready. Male pilots were sent overseas, and the U.S. military created the Women Airforce Service Pilot (WASP) program, where Lee became a valued and accomplished member.

Julie Kwon’s illustrations superbly capture Lee’s experiences on the ground and on the wing. In a shadowy elevator, the light around Lee is a warm glow, illuminating her dreamy I’d-rather-be-flying expression. In the air, fluffy clouds contrast with the sharp edges of the WASPs’ airplanes. Lee’s spirit shines throughout; she never stopped learning and trying new things, even as she worked under dangerous conditions to protect her country.

The author’s note offers further details about Hazel and her fellow WASPs and elaborates on the racist treatment Chinese American families like Lee’s often endured. The Fearless Flights of Hazel Ying Lee is an edifying, exciting real-life adventure that will inspire readers to let their own dreams take flight.

During Women’s History Month, we celebrate the contributions women have made to our country. These fascinating books about women who dared to dream big—and to act on those dreams—are sure to prompt young readers to follow in their footsteps.

Oh, baby!

Feature by Linda M. Castellitto

In these two thrillers, one group of women is committed to remaining childfree, while the other focuses on impending motherhood. But when support and camaraderie transform into sabotage and cruelty, who can the women trust with their lives?

Ah, to be young, carefree and self-righteous, like Sheila Heller and her college friends Dina, Naama and Ronit in Sarah Blau’s The Others, translated from the Hebrew by Daniella Zamir. 

The four women became fast and fierce friends after meeting in a freshman year Bible course at Tel Aviv’s Bar-Ilan University, dubbing themselves the Others and making an earnest vow: “We’re not like the rest . . . like all the students eager to get married during senior year, start having babies and settle down; we’re going to steer our own destinies.” 

Twenty years on, the women’s lives have taken disparate paths. Narrator Sheila is an instructor at the Bible Museum; Ronit is an actor; sweet Naama has been dead for many years; and acid-tongued Dina, a famous feminist scholar, has been murdered, found with the word “mother” carved into her forehead and a baby doll glued to her hands. It’s horrifying by any measure, but even more so, Sheila muses, because in death Dina was forced to become what she railed against for so long. 

Squirrelly police detective Micha Yarden presses Sheila to delve into the past to figure out who’d hate Dina enough to kill her, and Blau smoothly moves the story back and forth in time as Sheila slowly and tantalizingly reveals the friction and pain that led to the group’s separation. Mental illness and the big and small ways humans change over the years are explored via multiple characters, and fascinating parallels between the Others and childless women in the Bible abound, adding yet another layer of social commentary to a compelling and often disturbing narrative.

Is Sheila the culprit, the next victim or some combination thereof? The Others will keep readers guessing as it considers the damaging effects of societal pressure, unresolved resentment and lingering guilt. 

There’s pregnancy brain, and then there’s what Dr. Jillian Marsh experiences in R.H. Herron’s Hush Little Baby. Jillian is an OB-GYN, so she knows all about the intense hormonal changes and frustrating forgetfulness that pregnancy can bring, but this feels different. There’s a threatening, ominous charge to the air, a feeling of unease she can’t shake, when her securely locked and alarm-protected home in Venice Beach, California, is suddenly besieged by a host of strange noises, disturbing smells and items mysteriously missing or moved. 

Even the titular lullaby curdles from sweet to menacing as Jillian turns to her moms’ group, the Ripleys, for help figuring out if she’s being gaslit, and if so by whom and why. She formed the Ripleys with three other women she met through Alcoholics Anonymous, naming the group after “the protagonist of the Alien movies. . . . Ripley was the baddest of all mothers. She’d fiercely saved the universe twice. We wanted to emulate her, not mommy bloggers.” 

Jillian, uber-wealthy Bree, single mom-to-be Maggie and true crime TV producer Camille work together to figure out who might be behind the strange goings-on. Could it be Jillian’s unfaithful estranged wife, Rochelle, deviously angling for full custody? A weird neighbor? Or even Jillian herself, suffering from the aftereffects of her traumatic teen years? 

Skepticism from her friends and the police increases Jillian’s self-doubt and leads to conflicts among the Ripleys. The group seems to be fracturing more every day due to closely guarded secrets, differing views on the so-called “right way” to get pregnant and the stress of juggling busy lives and families.

A wild series of twists takes center stage as Herron’s carefully crafted slow-burn psychological suspense turns into something else altogether, spinning the story in a terrifying new direction. Readers who are drawn to creepily stressful tension as well as shocking, edge-of-your-seat sequences will revel in Hush Little Baby, even as they join the characters in taking a harder look at what pregnancy and motherhood offer to and demand from women.

In these two thrillers, one group of women is committed to remaining childfree, while the other focuses on impending motherhood.

Mystery

Unflappable amateur sleuths

Feature by Linda M. Castellitto

Two mysteries explore the glamour and ugliness of the 1920s.

Ah, the eternal allure of the citizen sleuth, with their uncanny ability to suss out lies and turn mystery into clarity—all without a badge or uniform. In these two 1920s-set mysteries, brave, intelligent women solve murder cases despite societal strictures, the people (mostly men) rooting for them to fail and the slippery piles of red herrings that do not look good with a cloche hat or beaded gown.

Australian author Kerry Greenwood’s witty and creative Death in Daylesford stars the particularly fabulous Phryne Fisher, with her exquisite and exquisitely expensive clothes, malachite bathtub and Hispano-Suiza luxury car. She has a hearty sexual appetite and a penchant for wearing trousers, and she delights in ignoring the scandalized gasps she leaves in her wake.

Miss Fisher’s 21st adventure has been eagerly awaited by fans, who most likely passed the time since 2014’s Murder and Mendelssohn by rewatching episodes of the TV adaptation of the series, “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries,” and its companion film, Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears. 

This time around, the crimes find Phryne. She has left her opulent Melbourne home for a trip to the countryside with her faithful assistant, Dot. In Daylesford, Phryne meets Captain Spencer and tours his spa, which serves as a retreat for shellshocked World War I veterans. He’s hoping for her financial support, and she’s hoping to enjoy a relaxing week away from the city. 

Alas, it’s not long before a murder happens right before her and Dot’s very eyes. And then they learn that three women have recently gone missing. Lovely, rural Daylesford is rife with secrets and liars, and Phryne and Dot resolve to figure out why evil is swirling around the local Temperance Hotel and two of its employees. 

Back in Melbourne, Dot’s police-sergeant fiancé, Hugh, is keeping an eye on Phryne’s three teenage wards, who become embroiled in a murder mystery of their own when a pregnant classmate is found floating in the Yarra River. Hugh enlists the teens’ help, and the trio strive to make Phryne proud as they search for clues and question schoolmates with savvy aplomb.

Death in Daylesford’s parallel storylines offer up a bounty of increasingly inventive crimes bolstered by delectable descriptions of captivating scenery and decadent meals. Additional delights come in the forms of nicely developed queer relationships and a wicked range of snarky insults. (Hugh’s boss “could lose a three-round bout with a revolving door,” while another character is “as plastered as a Giotto fresco.”) This is a vivid and never-boring visit to 1920s Australia, led by the beloved and unconventional Miss Fisher.

Debut author Nekesa Afia’s Dead Dead Girls introduces Louise Lovie Lloyd, who, like Phryne Fisher, is an intelligent and beautiful woman in her 20s with an eye for fashion and a facility for solving crimes. But as a Black woman living in 1926 Harlem, Louise is brand-new to the investigatory game, and not by choice. While leaving the Zodiac speakeasy, where she and her girlfriend, Rosa Maria, go to drink, dance and revel in their “easy, effortless connection that she never needed to think about,” Louise gets into an altercation with a racist white police officer that ends with her punching him in the face. 

After Louise is arrested, Detective Theodore Gilbert tells her that if she helps him figure out who’s killing Black teenage girls in Harlem, he’ll clear her record. She’s loath to do so, not only because it means ceding part of her life to this imperious stranger, but also because it would thrust her into the public eye—something she’s been avoiding since becoming “Harlem’s Hero” 10 years ago, when she escaped a kidnapper and freed three other girls trapped with her.  

Self-preservation and a desire to protect Harlem’s vulnerable girls, including her teenage twin sisters, compel Louise to accept Gilbert’s ruthless bargain. She employs her smarts and empathy in equal measure, adeptly navigating Harlem’s criminal underworld even as the killer strikes anew and the very air is permeated with dread and terror.

Afia’s Jazz Age setting, with its surges of artistic creativity, infuses the story with a crackling feeling of possibility that stands in sharp contrast to the frustrating and often devastating realities of Louise’s life. While she has love and friendship, she also must contend with virulent racism and sexism; she feels constrained by those who seek to control her and hindered by her nagging self-doubt.

While Louise is just 5 feet, 2 inches tall, she is anything but diminutive in personality, bravery or determination. Afia has created a character that readers will root for—to solve the crimes, to prevail over injustice, to love herself as fiercely as she works to protect those around her. 

Two mysteries explore the glamour and ugliness of the 1920s.

Mystery

Ladies of the law

Feature by Linda M. Castellitto

Murder, deceit and corruption are all in a day’s work for Detective Maggie D’arcy and Sheriff Heidi Kick, who hunt down killers while wrangling with office politics, family matters and the patriarchy in two exciting series entries. 

Sarah Stewart Taylor’s A Distant Grave is a complex, slow-burning follow-up to 2020’s The Mountains Wild, wherein readers learned of the family tragedy that inspired Maggie D’arcy to become a homicide detective. The aftereffects still linger for Maggie; trauma “sits sleeping, for years, and then comes back, in ways you never would have expected.” She has reengaged in the rhythms of Long Island daily life, but her daughter, Lilly, is still reeling from the death by suicide of her father, Maggie’s ex-husband.

When the body of Irish citizen Gabriel Treacy is found in affluent Bay Shore Manor Park, Maggie’s detective brain snaps into focus. She welcomes the chance to concentrate on a case she can solve rather than emotional pain she cannot. The district attorney believes the victim is a casualty of gang warfare, but there must be more to the story. Why was he murdered in an area to which he has no ties? Are the horrific scars on his back related to his death? 

Maggie thinks the answers are in Ireland, where her boyfriend, Conor, lives. She travels there with Lilly and teams up with Roly Byrne of the Irish Garda (the national police). In the county Clare countryside, they learn Treacy was an international aid worker who was kidnapped and tortured in Afghanistan years ago, and had recently been searching for the brother placed for adoption by his mother years before Treacy was born. 

Just as the disparate puzzle pieces begin to fit together, the DA orders Maggie back to Long Island. Determined to get justice for Treacy, she navigates naysayers and shrugs off looming danger as she closes in on the complicated, sad truth of his demise. With painstaking investigative work and conflicted internal monologues from a protagonist who is something of an enigma, even to herself, Taylor has crafted another believable and intriguing installment of Maggie’s story.

A thousand miles away in John Galligan’s fictional Bad Axe County, Wisconsin, another person is found dead: a homeless young man with two gunshot wounds and no identification who, Sheriff Heidi Kick is appalled to learn, was buried alive. 

That’s just one of the myriad things Heidi’s got on her precariously overloaded plate as Bad Moon Rising opens. To paraphrase one of her what-on-earth-is-going-on mental tallies: Her period is 17 days late; her young son’s unexplained anger is ramping up; in 87 days she’s up for reelection against the deplorable Barry Rickreiner (and his vicious mother, Babette); and an anonymous emailer is offering supposedly damning information about her opponent.

When more victims are found and other crimes unearthed, Larry “Grape” Fanta, Vietnam veteran and editor of the Bad Axe Broadcaster for 43 years, proffers assistance to “his favorite sheriff.” Sure, “his pig [heart] valve felt sticky as it flapped,” but his brain and will are strong, and he has a hunch that the increasingly disturbing letters and calls he’s fielded over the years might be related to the murders. 

Galligan moves between multiple points of view—widely varied, all compelling—as Heidi’s investigation takes her through oft-hostile and dangerously rugged country, with a relentless heatwave and toxic political machinations ramping up the tension. The author’s trademark dark humor is in fine form here, whether through Heidi’s irrepressible dispatcher, Denise, or well-wrought descriptions like “torrid mist of atomized manure.” 

As the pages turn, the author prompts readers to consider a range of timely issues (climate change, homelessness, corrosive wealth) via masterfully executed and action-packed storylines that coalesce in a shockingly memorable final act sure to leave readers eager for the next Bad Axe County thriller. 

Criminals’ days of freedom are numbered when these two women are on the case.

YA FictionYA

The case of the teenage gumshoe

Feature by Linda M. Castellitto

It’s hard enough to be a teenager without having to deal with, say, ghosts, disappearances or murder. In this trio of YA mysteries, smart and determined girls do whatever it takes to solve the case.

When All the Girls Are Sleeping

Never has a supply closet been so ominous as in Emily Arsenault’s slow-burning gothic mystery, When All the Girls Are Sleeping. The site of said closet is Dearborn Hall, the senior dorm at Windham-Farnswood Academy. Until last year, the closet was room 408, home to the mercurial Taylor Blakey. In the wee hours of a frigid February night, screams echoed down the hallway, and Taylor’s lifeless body was found on the ground beneath her open window. Since that night, Taylor’s former room has become a taboo space, intentionally ignored and never entered . . . or has it? 

Haley Peppler, Taylor’s erstwhile best friend, isn’t so sure. She’s skeptical of rumors about the ghostly Winter Girl who supposedly haunts Dearborn Hall. But lately, unexplainable things have been happening around the closet (its window left open during a freeze, whispers emanating from within), and Haley is starting to think there really could be something supernatural afoot.

When Haley receives a strange video filmed the night of Taylor’s death, it heightens her unease and spurs her to investigate: Is there another explanation for Taylor’s demise than the flimsy story the school offered? As Haley researches Dearborn Hall’s colorful history, Arsenault does an excellent job of unfurling a centuries-old mystery within the context of this contemporary tale. 

Carefully timed flashbacks and revelations make for a tantalizingly suspenseful read. Using newspaper archives, social media and interviews, Haley unearths plausible motives and suspicious sorts aplenty, contributing to the book’s atmosphere of increasing dread. As the anniversary of Taylor’s death looms, a thought-provoking undercurrent of class conflict and unresolved anger adds urgency to Haley’s quest for the truth. When All the Girls Are Sleeping is a spooky and compelling examination of what truly haunts us.

That Weekend

On prom weekend, Claire Keough and her closest friends, couple Kat and Jesse, head up to a cabin in the Catskills to celebrate their entry into adulthood. It should be a fun, secret trip, but when Claire wakes up in a forest clearing alone and seriously injured, That Weekend becomes the most definitive event of her life thus far. Kat and Jesse are missing, and due to Claire’s head trauma, the last 36 hours are a blank. It’s a horrific dilemma: “All that matters is what happened on that mountain. The only important information is what I can’t remember.” 

This dramatic and terrifying turn of events is just the tip of the iceberg in this twisty, fast-paced mystery. Kat and Claire take turns telling the inventive story, which moves to and fro in time. The question of motive is at the heart of the story, which offers readers a rich mine of human behavior to ponder as characters crack under the stress of the weekend’s aftermath. Kat’s wealthy, powerful family tries to take control, the FBI gets involved and a Nancy Grace-esque journalist seems determined to portray Claire as a villain. The resultant media attention coupled with her nagging self-doubt compel Claire to conduct her own investigation in hopes of regaining control over her reputation, emotions and future. As we draw nearer to the truth of that fateful weekend getaway, author Kara Thomas (2018’s The Cheerleaders, et al.) expertly layers plenty of reasons to suspect almost everyone. Whodunit lovers will be delighted.

Lies, betrayals and pulse-pounding moments abound as Claire questions whether she can ever trust or even know anyone. The book’s shocking ending will surely cause readers to look upon innocuous things in their lives (friends, family, weekend jaunts) with sharp eyes.

The Box in the Woods

Readers who heaved sad sighs upon reaching the end of Maureen Johnson’s The Vanishing Stair, the final book in her Truly Devious trilogy, will be thrilled to learn that smart, funny teen sleuth Stevie Bell is back in The Box in the Woods.

It’s summertime, and Stevie is home from Ellingham Academy, the boarding school where she solved a 1930s cold case. That amazing feat made her famous for a time, but now she’s pondering what’s next and making the best of a deli job where the customers feel “entitled to her entire soul as she [gets] them ham.” 

She needn’t ponder for long. Tech bro CEO Carson Buchwald makes Stevie an intriguing proposition. He recently purchased Camp Sunny Pines, formerly Camp Wonder Falls, the site of an unsolved murder committed in 1978 that devastated the town of Barlow Corners. Carson intends to make a podcast and documentary about the case, and he wants Stevie to investigate. She can even bring her friends Janelle and Nate, and they’ll all work as counselors while Stevie attempts to solve the brutal crime.

As the story alternates between the present day and the 1970s, Johnson offers funny vignettes of summer-camp life and context for the deaths of the murdered camp counselors—locals whose family and friends still live in town. Readers will root for the irrepressible Stevie, who thrills to tracking down clues. Her romantic relationship is realistic and sweet, and her kindness toward the still-grieving residents of Barlow Corners is touching.

As Stevie fits pieces of the past together, the danger lurking in Barlow Corners emerges and creates irresistible tension, particularly after another murder happens mid-investigation. Can she find the truth before someone else meets an untimely end? The Box in the Woods is a gripping and complex mystery bolstered by its commentary on the popular fascination with true crime—and its empathetic reminder to consider the perspectives of those they leave behind in their wake.

In this trio of YA mysteries, smart and determined girls do whatever it takes to solve the case.

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