Mystery and Suspense

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
What I really enjoy about Liz Moore's books, as opposed to the many, currently circulating one-note mysteries, is that her stories have great depth and meaning beyond the traditional whodunit. The God of the Woods is a psychological thriller par excellence, juxtaposing the disappearances of two children into the woods of northern New York. Although the cases have disparities- one boy, one girl; one in 1961 and one in 1975; an 8 yr old on a walk with his grandfather and a 12 yr old girl from her summer camp; one seems to have gotten lost, one seems to have ran away-the startling similarities point to hidden nefarious deeds. The biggest of these parallels is that the children are brother and sister, and that the summer camp is located adjacent to the Van Laars, the wealthy family who the children belong to. A well drawn-out cast of characters leaves much for the reader to, by turns, despise, pity, and admire. I highly recommend!

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai
I really feel like Rebecca Makkai is rising as one of the great authors of the last decade. Her previous book, The Great Believers, was nominated for the Pulitzer and the Nat'l Book Award. In my opinion, this one surpasses it.
While at first glance, this is a mystery about the murder of a girl in a New Hampshire boarding school in the 90s, it's also about the Me Too movement, the time we started canceling out human beings, the time we let someone get away with murder/rape/domestic violence/pedophilia, the time we put a (possibly) innocent man in prison, the time we thought the black guy did it/ the time high school students were horrible and bullying to each other.
Bodie is a successful podcaster and professor, so when she is hired to teach a short term class at the boarding school she herself attended as a teen, it's not surprising that she starts questioning what really happened during her senior year, when her ex-roommate's body showed up bludgeoned and drowned in the gym pool. At the time, all evidence seemed to point to Omar, the athletic trainer. But...did it? Makkai neatly draws multiple storylines together to make points far beyond whodunit. Well worth the read!

Deadline by Gerry Boyle
An oldie (1994) but a goodie, this Maine mystery series features a NYT reporter, Jack McMorrow, who's relocated up North for a simpler life. Ha! He's immediately enmeshed in unsolved murder, shady characters, and more than one beat down. Gerry Boyle doesn't scrimp on the realism, and it's always fun to read a book when you recognize the locales. Fun, quick read. 

The Maid by Nita Prose
For once, the hype is true -The Maid lives up to all expectations! With elements of Christie as well as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Nita Prose brings us a neuro-diverse heroine (who we can only hope pops up in another book) entangled in cold-blooded murder, illicit activities, exacting etiquette, and Olive Garden trysts.
Molly is a maid at the exclusive Grand Regency, an existence she finds to be perfection--if it weren't for the passing of her grandmother (her only living relative), the ensuing loneliness, her financial woes, and her ostracization by the other employees for her odd affect and behavior. Add to this that Molly utterly lacks the ability to read motives in other people and it's easy to see how a girl could end up framed for murder. But Molly has been seriously underestimated her whole life, and she's finally able to use that to her advantage (with the help of a few good friends!)

Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li
Intense drama about a group of five young Chinese-American students who are pulled into a scheme to steal back looted Chinese art from the Summer Palace in Beijing that has found its way into American and European museums. I wouldn't have thought it plausible for anyone to plan heists of this magnitude in this day and age, and yet... Li paints a compelling tale that seems like it could actually happen. Adding another dimension are the back stories and interactions of the student- thieves, all members of the Chinese diaspora, all looking for their place in the world, trying to navigate the road to adulthood, to happiness, to success, and to love. Two thumbs up!

Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney
How to describe this book? The story, about a married couple who goes to a remote hideaway in Scotland in a last ditch attempt to save their marriage, is sort of dull and uninspired for the first 2/3 of the book, but then several unique and clever plot twists are thrown in that make for a fairly compulsive read. Just an amazing juxtaposition between story idea and execution. It's worth picking up if you love mysteries, not so much if you depend on character development or interesting turns of phrase.

Chasing the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar
I didn't scan the fine print on the book jacket before I started reading and was completely fooled into thinking this was a real story, very cool! Chizmar does an outstanding job of crafting a fake 'true crime' story, complete with pictures of victims interspersed throughout. And, of course, he injects himself as the narrator in a completely believeable fashion.
Richard 'recounts' the summer after he graduated from college, when he went back to his hometown to start work on a magazine he wanted to publish called 'Cemetary Dance'(which is actually what he did in real life). In this alternative reality, the town became a hotbed of terror as a serial killer stalked, assaulted and murdered girl after girl after girl. Richard and his friend, another recent jouralism grad, follow the clues and are soon up to their necks in the case -including being shadowed by the Boogeyman, as the mystery killer is dubbed. A great piece of fiction for a true crime afficionado.

The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld
 Naomi Cottle is the Child Finder, an investigator who has dedicated her life to finding missing children -after being found herself at the age of 9 when she escaped from unknown captors. The alternating narratives in this book feature both Naomi's voice, and the voice of a missing child who she's seeking, and it's well done. Naomi is the female investigator we've been looking for since the Kinsey Milhone series A is for Alibi came to an end. If you like mysteries with tart, quirky, independent investigators, unrequited love interests, and clever plot lines, than you should try this series. Now, on to the next one!

The Obsession by Jesse Q. Sutanto
Looking for a suspenseful YA with twists, ambiguity, and good people who do bad things? Or possibly, bad people who do good things? Our anti-hero, Delilah, is trapped in a home with her cowed mother and mom's very abusive boyfriend, who also happens to be a cop investigating her school for a drug dealer. Logan is her charismatic, handsome, and charming stalker, who also happens to be blackmailing her. Bad things happen, and it's hard to know when to cheer and when to cringe, which makes this a perfect suspenseful novel, action-packed right up to the last page.

Long Bright River by Liz Moore
Compelling mystery that is just as much a whodunit as it is a commentary on the opioid crisis. Two sisters, daughters of addicts, grow up to choose very different paths for themselves. Mickey becomes a police officer, Kacey is a heroin addict/prostitute. When Kacey goes missing, Mick's racheting up anxiety is compounded when it becomes clear that someone is killing vulnerable women in their section of Philadelphia. Can Mick find Kacey before it's too late, and how to deal with her own lifetime of memories, prejudices, and isolation so that they don't impede her search? Red herrings abound, and it's easy to empathize with the characters, even if you don't particularly like them.

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara
Reading this book is taking a trip to a whole other world, but it's not a wonderland. It's the harsh reality of a 9 year old boy named Jai, who lives in a basti (slum by a garbage dump) in India where children are suddenly going missing. Jai, who loves to watch crime dramas on the family's prized TV, is about to get a dose of reality as friends are disappearing and the police can't be bothered to investigate what's happening to this marginalized population.
Because Jai and his friends are so young and innocent, they suspect it might even be the work of a djinn, a magical creature who's eating his captives. Unfortunately, the truth isn't much better. The three little friends decide to become detectives and find the missing children, and through their eyes the reader is allowed into a world they might not have realized existed. It's a harsh life, albeit one full of love, family, laughter, and tradition, but sparse on material possessions or full bellies. This is a masterfully told tale that thrusts injustice and poverty into the limelight while giving us tiny heroes to root for.

The Cousins by Karen M. McManus
Karen McManus does it again-she's the queen of fast-paced YA mystery. The Cousins pits three likeable teen characters against conniving adults, shrouded family secrets, and enigmatic events that lead to a big reveal that you probably won't see coming. Aubrey, Milly, and Jonah are the aforementioned cousins, but they barely know each other as their very wealthy grandmother disinherited all their parents 24 years ago, and the whole family became more or less estranged. Surprisingly, the grandmother has issued an invitation for the three to visit her for the summer on Gull Cove Island, where she owns an exclusive resort. But, they're not vacationing, they are hired as staff, and when they finally meet their grandmother, it's as if she wasn't expecting them. Add to this the puzzling and painful events going on in each of the cousins' lives and there's some unraveling to do before anyone gets to anything close to the truth of why their family split apart. Oh, and dead bodies? There will be a few of those, too! There's great chemistry between Aubrey, Milly, and Jonah, which adds a lot of entertainment value. Highly recommended.

The Truants by Kate Weinberg
Be forewarned -this enigmatic novel isn't anything like an Agatha Christie mystery, although suspicious behavior and shadowy figures abound. Jess enters the University of East Anglia in the hopes of making a connection with one of the professors, a charismatic woman named Lorna who teaches a course on Christie and seems to have an unnatural fixation with the ethics of murder. Now, a naive student who develops a fascination for a woman who has a fascination for murder doesn't necessarily mean that death and mayhem will occur, but it doesn't hurt. Jess is a smart girl, but she is easily manipulated by flatterers and friends and finds herself in several relationship triangulations that prove destructive. The story highlights the persuasive pull that educators have on impressionable minds, and the layers of manipulation occurring on multiple fronts are mindboggling.

Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel
A real page-turner about a girl who has spent her entire childhood being poisoned by her mother, Patty. Now, Patty had no intention of killing Rose Gold. Rather, she has Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy, which means that she needs the sympathy and admiration of others from taken care of a sick child. All the benefits of sainthood, none of the work. Meanwhile, Rose Gold has suffered very real pain, as well as ostracism by other kids, and lacks even basic social skills or a moral compass.
The story isn't about the poisoning, but follows Rose Gold's difficult transition to adulthood after Patty goes to prison when Rose Gold is 18. Quickly we see that not only is Patty not a saint, but Rose Gold isn't either. When Patty is released from prison after five years and Rose Gold invites her to live in her home, you can practically hear the ominous music start playing.
 

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson
Five years ago, Sal Singh murdered Andie Bell -allegedly. Pip remembers Sal's kindness to her when she was young, and can't believe that Sal was capable of such a thing. So, Pip decides for her senior capstone project to get to the bottom of things, solve the murder, and clear Sal's name. Things quickly veer out of control and suspects start to rack up. With the help of Sal's brother, Ravi, Pip starts to close in on the truth, and that is a very dangerous place to be.
If you love murder mysteries, you're in for a real treat with this one! Pip is a plausible detective, and the author has woven a story that will keep you on the edge of your seat, with more than one explosive surprise waiting for you!
 

The Other Americans by Laila Lalami

This novel is a mash up of suspense, romance, and family drama. When a Moroccan immigrant and local business owner is the victim of a hit and run in southern California, his daughter is convinced that it was a hate crime. Each chapter is voiced by a different involved party, from Driss, the dearly departed, to his suspicious daughter, Nora, to Coleman, the detective on the case. Add to that: his widow, his other daughter, a friend from Nora's past who's an Iraqi war vet, etc., and things quickly become overly complex. Unfortunately, there's simply too much story to tell, and it feels as if the thick soup of details overshadows Nora's budding romance and self-awakening. When a character reveals a substance abuse problem and it's only addressed in passing, it might be time to pare down. Nevertheless, Laila Lalami does have a beautiful way with words, and she paints a vivid picture of the life of immigrants in America. Her book, The Moor's Account is a fantastic fictionalization of the first Muslim to hit these shores (as a slave on a conquistador's ship), and was nominated for the Booker and Pulitzer. She doesn't quite hit that mark with The Other Americans, but still a worthwhile read. 


The Cellar by Minette Walters
Revenge is an ugly emotion, but as 14 yr old Muna, the illegal slave of the Songoli family, says, "I am what you have made me".  
Muna is taken under false pretenses from an African orphanage when she's only 8 years old.  Mrs. Songoli claims to be her aunt, and brings Muna back with her to Great Britain -to begin a horrible existence as the family's slave girl.  Not only is she regularly beaten by Mrs. Songoli and sexually molested by Mr. Songoli, but their two sons are starting to present an ominous threat to Muna's already diminished circumstances.  

But, Muna is a clever, resourceful girl.  When the younger son mysteriously disappears on his way to school, she uses the opportunity to -finally-improve her life. But at what cost?  A terrific, thrilling read that will keep you spellbound right to the last page.


My Sunshine Away by M.O. Walsh
In 1989 Baton Rouge, on a quiet, family friendly cul-de-sac, the unthinkable happens: a 15 year old is attacked and raped. Told from the perspective of another child living on the street, a story unfolds of how little we know those closest to us.
Our narrator is 14 and coming to grips with adolescent urges and crushes while in the midst of having his father leave home to live with a much younger woman. When the crime occurs, he watches the beautiful object of his affection crumble into a diminished version of herself as the police fail to solve the crime. He also evaluates the neighborhood and comes up with a strange crew of potential suspects-including himself. But who is the guilty party?
The author does a terrific job of building the suspense through until the end, because every one of the suspects seems as guilty as sin.


Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart
Jule and Imogen are unlikely bffs. Imogen is a beautiful young heiress who is very generous to her friends -until she isn't. She has no problem finding a boyfriend, but keeping a boyfriend is another matter. She's quit college and moved to a beach house with a revolving cast of guests, and she can change from kind to cruel in a split second.

 Jule is a self-sufficient orphan  who is strong, adaptive, and not above using a little violence to get what she wants. Her tough life has made her a very tough person; nobody that you should cross. When Jule stumbles into Imogen's life, a friendship is born. Both girls have secrets to keep, and both will do whatever it takes to survive. Whatever. It. Takes.
If you like Genuine Fraud, be sure to check out E. Lockhart's bestseller:
"We Were Liars "


Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
Libby Day survived a murderous rampage (with Satanic overtones, no less) at the family farm when she was seven that took the lives of her mother and two sisters. Ben, the 15 year old brother who's fermented in gothic creepiness, is tried, convicted and sentenced -largely due to Libby's testimony.
Twenty-five years later, Libby is no noble heroine that Flynn wants you to root for. She's a vaguely unlikeable chronic depressive who continues to survive-but just barely. Libby at 32 is as wrung out as a damp, mildewy dishcloth, with no will to live but no particular desire to die, either. Only when she is confronted with the possibility that she may have been wrong (lied, been 'coached', mistaken, an idiot, whatever) does she show signs of life. What I love about Libby is, she's tough. A pissed off kleptomaniac with no visible means of income now that her trust fund has run out, when she's approached by a 'Kill Club' who believe her brother is innocent, she agrees to help them, if only to stave off her money woes. She hasn't spoken to her brother in 25 years, but she'll do whatever she has to to make it through another day. 
Artfully spinning between Libby's investigation and the day of the murder, Flynn successfully shows how ordinary life can devolve into something atrocious in the blink of an eye. As the story unravels, Flynn presents a host of characters that you have no trouble believing would slash, choke, and chop the life out of this family, if only for the thrill of it. With a bevy of suspects to choose from and Libby's increasingly spirited sleuth work, you'll be dying to know the gory details. Don't worry: you'll be tempted to wipe blood spatter off your face before you're done.
Gillian Flynn has a gift. She excels at portraying heinousness in ordinary people. The banality of evil, if you will, that lies all around us. Read this book -then look at your neighbors a little differently!

Realistic Fiction

The Wedding People by Alison Espach
Phoebe and Lila are about to become best friends, but they don't know each other yet. Lila has booked the Cornwall Inn for the wedding week to end all wedding weeks, and Phoebe is the lone guest at the inn who isn't one of the wedding people. When she gets pulled into Lila's (bridal) wake, it proves to be a life-changing event for all kinds of people. This book is dense with so many genuinely charming characters, but I particularly was rooting for Phoebe to overcome her hurdles. The Wedding People is an intriguing commentary about how we are possibly most ourselves when we have nothing left to lose, and how devastating loss doesn't have to mean the end of happiness in our lives.

Pet by Catherine Chidgey
Extraordinary story from Catherine Chidgey- I highly recommend for anyone who likes psychological twists and an unexpected ending!! Justine is a 12 year old girl navigating her last year of school before hitting high school. As if it weren't difficult enough to puzzle your way through puberty and first crushes, Justine must do so without her mother, who died of cancer less than a year before.
Now, add a new element to the story. Mrs. Price, her teacher, is beautiful and charismatic and all the students (including Justine) are constantly vying to be her favorite. But..is Mrs. Price a savior or a manipulative demon, casting her net of persuasion and division over Justine and her classmates? Put it this way: when items are stolen from the classroom, Mrs. Price gives each student a slip of paper and encourages them to write the name of the student who they think is responsible so she can out them. Diabolical! And not, by far, the worst thing that Mrs. Price will do. Did I mention that Justine's father was an eligible widower????

Gather by Kenneth M. Cadow
Ian's family has fallen on tough times, and he and his mother struggle with getting by. Things are about to get much worse for them, but what should enter into Ian's life but a gigantic stray dog? Why is this pertinent to the situation, or even to this book? Gather, the eponymous dog, is the one thing Ian can rely on, and Gather is also totally reliant on Ian. Their friendship provides a warm center to a tragic story, one that will, unfortunately, resonate with many young adult readers. Other points that will sound familiar to rural kids (this story takes place in Vermont) are family farms, hunting, solace in nature, and (I hope) finding a compassionate adult at school to provide assistance. I very much look forward to recommending this coming of age story to reluctant readers in my school!


Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
I must admit, I haven't been reading many challenging books this fall. Instead, I've been going for the cozy, warm read. Remarkably Bright Creatures certainly fits that description as it features a tidy little woman in a tidy story with a very neat ending. Tova is an elderly woman, alone after the death of her husband from cancer, and mourning the disappearance of her son 30 years ago. She fills her extra time with a group of friends who call themselves the Knit-Wits, and a job cleaning the local aquarium. Interspersed with Tova's story is a narrative by the aquarium's aging octopus, Marcellus. Marcellus is, of course, much cleverer than the humans give him credit for, and he is able to connect the dots on events unfolding around him much better than the oblivious and self-absorbed humans. The magical realism of Marcellus' voice is sweet and really helps pull Tova's story together. However, as I said, don't go looking for any revelatory concepts about life here, just be satisfied with getting to know some very endearing characters.

The Dog of the North by Elizabeth Mckenzie
Don't let Elizabeth McKenzie's whimsical writing style and superb wordsmithery distract you from the poignancy of the deeper issues she addresses. Although this highly recommended read was laugh-out-loud funny, it also dealt with deeper issues of loss, divorce, isolation, childhood trauma, and illness. Does that sound incompatible? Meet Penny, our heroine (for whom the bizarre is also quotidian), "..I took careful hold of the bloated milk carton and chucked it into the dumpster, wherein it exploded like a stink bomb. Peering over the side, I observed a spray of curds in a halo around the ruptured vessel. What a relief that it hadn't erupted in the van during the night! That I had avoided being covered with sour curds surely counted as the day's first success."
Penny needs all the help she can get as she navigates her divorce, her parents' disappearance, a new friend who might or might not resemble a hedgehog, and a grandmother who is suspected of sociopathic activity. 5 Stars all the way!!


The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty
Phenomenal story about a girl named Tiffany (self-named Blandine, after a Catholic female mystic) who is struggling to make sense of her life, especially a toxic encounter that has derailed her future and unmade her. Blandine lives in a decrepit apartment complex called La Lapiniere -the Rabbit Hutch. And, much like a real hutch, the building is packed with a host of mindless individuals in various stages of life and various states of apathy, depression, and violence. There are definitely shades of Watership Down here, as well as Ian McEwan.
Aside from the artistry required to entertwine so many different stories and metaphors into one cohesive whole, Tess Gunty couldn't have written about more timely themes, as seen in this fabulous article from Iain McGilchrist: Left-brain thinking will destroy civilisation. At the heart of it, though, Gunty writes beautifully about intentions, actions, misgivings, and transcendence. She definitely earned the Nat'l Book Award!

Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty
It's nice to have an Indigenous writer from the Northeast join the pantheon of celebrated Native voices currently out there: (Louise Erdrich, Sherman Alexie, Stephen Graham Jones, Joy Harjo. In this series of short stories, we see life in a Maine Indigenous family through the eyes of a boy and a young man. It's not perfectly clear that these are the same person, but I think we can assume they are.
In any case, we are introduced to a community that not many are privy to -in fact, most readers will not have heard of the Wabanaki before. Some of the issues will have a familiar ring to them, such as substance abuse and poverty. But Talty liberally sprinkles in the details of what makes his character's experience unique to a Penobscot. Language, family dynamics, and customs are fleshed out with the vivid descriptions of life on Indian Island. An excellent companion piece would be Women of the Dawn, particularly the chapter on Molly Dellis.
*Talty won the National Book Critic Circle Award for John Leonard Prize, 2022

Beneficence by Meredith Hall
 Eloquently written story about a Maine farm family in the 1950s who experience a divisive, tragic event and their arduous efforts to get back to their previously good and happy life. Tup and Doris run the family farm and have three children; the narration swings between the two of them and their daughter, Dodie. Each individual blames themselves for the incident, and each navigates a very different pathway to recovery. Tup struggles to think of himself as a 'good man'. Doris cannot seem to connect with the world anymore and drifts through, mired in the past. Dodie's determination to experience a good life again, 'beneficence', is heroic. Essentially, a prototype of how different perspective colors our memories of the past, our hopes for the future, and our ability to fully engage in the present.
It's a rarity to come across an author who writes so poignantly and whose words become so translatable into the reader's daily life. I'm grateful to have never gone through an ordeal like the Senter family's, yet I find Meredith Hall's observances and descriptions to be fully applicable to my own setbacks and struggles. I would liken her style to Amor Towles, another fabulous author who encapsulates his characters' thoughts and feelings in a universal way. As Ms Hall writes, "We will ourselves to live this day grateful and unguarded. We decide. We make ourselves ready to participate in beneficence and goodness. There is no peace outside that."

Don't Know Tough by Eli Cranor
 A surprisingly complex YA book that tackles child abuse, addiction, accountability, and the pull and power of high school athletics in small town America. Billy is a very talented running back on the local football team -but can he keep his rage and violent tendencies in check? Trent is the coach, and while he truly does his best to live a Christian life, will he be able to when it counts the most? These questions will both beg for answers when a life is snuffed out, either by accident, negligence, or murder. Very, very suspenseful, and enough sports references to keep the athletically minded fully engaged. 

Other People's Clothes by Calla Henkel
Another book exploring the vacuity and self-serving behavior of the morally hollow, narcissistic young? Well, kinda. But also an examination of the dangers of being impressionable and directionless, which is Zoe's achilles' heel. Zoe, a college student who has just lost her best friend to murder, is adrift for several reasons. One of which is that she was so attached to Ivy that she often imitated her style of hair and dress -and even ends up dating Ivy's ex-boyfriend. Not the most psychologically stable person, Zoe's escape from reality via exchange year as art student in Berlin morphs into her forming other unnatural attachments, and when unstability meets unstability meets unstability, it's an explosive combination of carnage that results. Ostensibly a tale of two girls immersed in a hedonistic year abroad, this is also very much a murder mystery and the last third of the book draws many elements together for a surprising ending. Excellent!

Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson
This is a really intriguing coming-of-age story, mostly because it presents the events that happened one summer to 16 year old Frankie in a completely nonjudgmental, unbiased way. Sort of, here, this happened, then that happened, and we're not going to decide whether it's good or bad. The jist is that Frankie and her new friend, Zeke, decide to make a poster with a curious and meaningless phrase layered over an equally curious and meaningless drawing. They then surreptitiously paper the town with hundreds and hundreds of photocopies of this image, and it takes off like wildfire. No one can figure out who did it, and it leaps into the national press. Is it the work of a cult? A political movement? What does it mean? Unfortunately, the fever drives some people to bad choices, and there are consequences, including the irrevocable rending of Frankie and Zeke's fledgling friendship.
Flash forward 2o years, and the secret is finally about to be exposed. Is this a good thing for Frankie, or will it spell disaster? A great YA novel about keeping your perspective in life when all about you are losing theirs.

Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin
Delicate, descriptive, and metaphorical, Winter in Sokcho speaks volumes about loneliness, desolation, and suffering.
A young Korean-French girl works at a tatty guesthouse in Sokcho, right on the border with North Korea. The winter setting, her absentee and vacuous boyfriend, and the yearning she feels when a French artist comes to the guesthouse for a stay are a melancholic feast of words. Beautifully done. 

Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett
Annie Hartnett has cemented her place on my list of favorite authors with this humorous and poignant novel about a New Hampshire family dealing with brain disease, failed potential, missing persons, and the opioid crisis. Doesn't sound very funny, does it? Annie's light touch and whimsical take on serious issues is her magic touch. Speaking of which, let's talk about the story. Emma heads for home to help take care of her dad, afflicted with hallucinations and memory issues, which seems like a natural fit, since as far as her family knows, Emma is in med school. Also, Emma was born with 'the charm', the ability to heal with her touch, albeit only minor illnesses. What her family is about to discover is that Emma never went to med school, she's lost the charm, and she doesn't particularly want to come home as she's nursing a grudge against her father and doesn't want to deal with her brother -a recovering addict.
Add to the mix that her dad is obsessed with finding Emma's missing ex-best friend, another opioid addict. Her mother has had it with her dad's shenanigans, Emma's status as golden girl is tarnished, her brother is resentful, and yet..it all comes together with a beautiful mix of wryness, loveliness to each other, and the surprise life-changing event of Emma subbing for a 5th grade class. Absolutely 5 stars!

Building Stories by Chris Ware
I had this on my to-read list for years, so I was very excited when I finally picked it up.  If you're not familiar, this is a box full of graphic stories that are interrelated, the common denominator being residence by several protagonists in a particular Chicago apartment building.
Cool concept, but absolute maelstrom of material, in no discernable order. I would donate it to my library, but random inappropriate drawings, not particularly apropos to the story lines, abound. I feel like I tried to read this while on the teacup ride at Disney!

The Other Mother by Matthew Dicks
There is a logical explanation for why Michael Parsons believes his mother has been replaced by an identical imposter -but is it the correct one? This marvelous novel really captures the voice of Michael, an extremely likeable (albeit troubled) 14 year old boy, and explores this very issue. Michael obviously has some deep-seated emotional issues stemming from the early death of his father,his mother's subsequent quick remarriage, the grind of adolescence, and a lot of responsibility for his younger siblings. When Michael finds one day that he no longer believes that his mother is his real mother, he sets off on a quest to find some answers -and ends up affecting some of the lives around him in unexpected ways. A very enjoyable read.

 

Girl A by Abigail Dean
Loosely based on (I'm assuming) the nauseating case of the Turgeon Family , Girl A is the story of Lex, a survivor of horrendous abuse and neglect. In a family ruled by an insane, violent father and a traumatized and passive mother, seven siblings are reduced to starving near-corpses, wallowing in filth, until Lex at 15 years of age somehow makes a break for it and goes for help. After rescue, the children are all referred by pseudonyms to protect their anonymity, and thus Lex becomes Girl A.

Flashing back and forth between her nightmare of a childhood and the current day, Lex tries to act as the executor of their parents' estate after her mother dies in prison-while also grappling with memories she doesn't want to relive, and contact with siblings she would just as soon forget.

This isn't a true crime recounting, but a perching inside the headspace of someone so traumatized that it's hard to know when details are exaggerated or perhaps even glossed over. Really excellent writing that leaves lots of unanswered questions about whether one could ever truly recover from something like this.

Raft of Stars by Andrew J. Graff
This book is an emotional investment in two ten year old boys, Fish (Fischer) and Bread (Dale), caught up in the grip of a situation that is bigger than they are. Bread is the victim of abuse at the hand of his father, but things come to a head when Fish steps in and takes action. A shot rings out, and events inexorably cascade until the boys find themselves on the run in 90 miles of Wisconsin wilderness. Graff effectively brings these boys to life without either making them precious or wise and capable beyond their years.
Equally compelling are the adults who spring into action to rescue the boys. Fish's mother and grandfather are joined by Cal, the sheriff, and Tiff, whose connections to the others is vague but plausible. They are flawed but ferocious in their determination to find these boys before it's too late. No kidding, a real page turner!

The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis
A captivating story about a young orphan, Beth Harmon, who turns out to be a chess prodigy. Told in a starkly clear style, Beth moves through a somewhat troubled life with one focus: becoming a grandmaster. I don't play chess myself, so I didn't make much of an effort to understand the passages that detailed the games she played. Nevertheless, this was an insightful glimpse into the mind of a savant, and so therefore fascinating.

 

The Boy in the Field by Margot Livesey
Excellent novel about the repercussions that result after a trio of siblings find the victim of an attack lying in a field. Naturally we would expect that anyone who has been assaulted would have their life upended, but what about those on the periphery? For Duncan (13 yrs old), Zoe (16), and Matthew (17), their perspective on the world around them shifts slightly when they spot an injured and bleeding boy on their way home from school one day. In the aftermath, they each begin questioning their views on love, the future, and family. One thing that remains solid is the affectionate and respectful relationship that the three share with each other -it's a beautiful thing to read. Themes of mother/child bonding, beauty, and passion thread through the story, lending a warm patina.

Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano
Reading a book depicting a plane crash with 191 fatalities and 1 survivor is probably not the best way to begin the bleak month of March. I couldn't tell if Napolitano's writing was compulsively easy to glide through or if I was just deperate to make the sadness end. In either case, a well-done, albeit grief-filled story about 12-year old Edward picking up the pieces of his life after his family is killed in the accident and he incomprehensively survives. Juxtoposing Edward's passage toward emotional and physical healing in the aftermath with an hour by hour narrative of the flight through different passengers' eyes, the reader gets a full sense of the tragedy that has occurred. Your heart will be heavy, but all hope is not lost. A testament to our ability to mend, rebuild, and continue on, even when the future seems insurmountable.

A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet
 There's something so haunting about children who are older than their years, who are forced by circumstance to become parents to themselves, their siblings, or perhaps even their own parents. In this book, we meet a large coalition of such children, narrated through the voice of Evie, a precocious teenager whose world-weariness is earned honestly from parents who are profligate in their indulgences. The situation at first seems idyllic: a group of old friends rent out a magnificent mansion on the coast for a summerlong, hedonistic reunion. Dubbed a 'multi-family vacation', the dozen or so children are quickly relegated to the periphery whilst the parents party down. The kids resort to their own devices, but are still clearly far more mature in their antics than any of the older generation.
And then: the world falls apart. A horrific hurricane, fueled by the unstable climate, leads the kids to make a life-changing decision to flee their neglectful parents and strike out for parts unknown, all in the interest of finding safety and relieving themelves of the burdensome adults. Evie focuses on saving her little brother, Jack, whose copy of A Children's Bible(fraught with its own series of apocalyptic events) provides solace of a kind.
There are some interesting parallels that form between the kids' circumstances and events in the Bible, if you are familiar enough to pick them out. Really, I believe that Millet, an ardent environmentalist, is trying to point out that whether you believe God placed us here on Earth or not, we have but one home and our self-centeredness is breaking the world as we know it. Highly recommended!!
 

Everywhere You Don't Belong by Gabriel Bump

A frank and sincere portrayal of an African-American boy named Claude, growing up on the South Side of Chicago. Claude is not: a gang member, drug user, victim of unspeakable crime, superior athlete, or chess protege. He is, in fact, just a guy trying to live his life. Sometimes that means parents leaving, sometimes that means narrowly escaping a riot, sometimes it means falling in love or leaving for college. Always, it means that, black or white, kids deserve the opportunity to find out who they are and what they're made of. There's a lot of humor and sorrow in Claude's well-written tale, underscored by this stark truth:
"Of course, I knew. I understood the difference between how society treats misbehaving white teenagers and misbehaving black teenagers. Those parties on frat row-just turn it down, bring it inside; those black kids arrested for smoking weed in a parking lot. Those cashiers in the campus grocery store looking at me walking down the candy aisle; those white students pocketing beer cans without hesitation." Highly recommended for high school readers. 

 

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
Reid relies so heavily on stereotypes that it was hard to think of her characters as having real lives. Her somewhat wooden descriptions about their pasts didn't help, "Kelley Copeland was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He had an older sister who had one child, and two younger brothers who worked in the same post office (as) his father. Kelley made a huge effort to avoid screens after ten p.m."
Nevertheless, she does a great job of showcasing that we can make such assumptions about the motives, emotions, and desires of the people we know that it makes it very hard to discern who we're really dealing with. Although this has been marketed as a book that addresses the racial divide, it also confronts differences in social classes, upbringings, and Millennial mindset, and how our own experiences color the interactions we have with others.

Trust Exercise by Susan Choi
Taking place in the '8o's at a performing arts high school, this is the story of a group of teenagers dealing with love, passion, and adolescence, exacerbated by the high drama of their involvement in the theatre program. Or is it?
While the first half of the book depicts a tumultuous romance between sophomores Sarah and David (with some pretty tawdry and unnecessary sex scenes), An abrupt shift midway reveals that the first half was a novel written by the now adult Sarah, and her frienemy "Karen", as she is named in the novel, has a bone or two to pick with her about the veracity of the tale. Namely, Karen feels that the story somehow glosses over a few devastating events that shift the tone from young love to victimhood, narcissism, and tragic aftermath.
Honestly, I thought the first half of the book was fine as it was, but didn't necessarily see the story's worth as a National Book Award winner until the voice changed to Karen's, and we start to understand all that we didn't previously comprehend. This book leaves a lot up to the reader's interpretation and would yield a fantastic discussion for a book group.

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
The starkest contrast between this book and Lolita is the point of view. Although there is still a predatory man and a vulnerable girl, it is an entirely different scenario when witnessed through her eyes instead of his. I never could make it through Lolita without tasting bile in my mouth, but Vanessa conjures up a different feeling, one of sadness and pity instead of pure revulsion.
Vanessa is a girl/woman with a joyless, loveless life.  As an awkward, angry 15 year old, she had trouble feeling love for herself, and that made her ripe for the plucking by Strane.  Strane's claims of loving her and being pulled into a relationship by her are utter B.S.  He carefully gleans her from the other students in order to get what he wants-innocence, trust,dependence, malleability.  He didn't love her, he loved that he had absolutely control over her -body and mind.  He brainwashed her into protecting him at all costs, and she thought that was what love felt like, because her understanding of love was so sparse.  Ah, that's heart-wrenching. Mostly, these are two people who don't like or love themselves very much and are seeking validation from outside sources, which never ends well. Vanessa at 32 is a shadow of who she might have become, frozen in time and unable to come to grips with what she has anesthetized herself into believing was her first romance.
Reading this has helped me to understand more why this story replays itself over and over again between adolescent girls or boys and pedophiles all over the world.  This story is so well written, you would swear it was autobiographical, although Russell takes pains in the foreword to assure us that it is not.

Unclaimed Baggage by Jen Doll
This is a sweet story about three kids: Doris, Nell, and Grant. They work together at a store called Unclaimed Baggage, which sells the contents of lost luggage that the airlines auction off when it goes unclaimed for too long. The deeper story is that all three of the teens have their own baggage: Doris has unexpectedly lost a beloved aunt, and she is also dealing with an issue that occurred when she was twelve. Nell was forced to move to Alabama from Chicago after her mother takes a new job, and has left behind a boyfriend she loves and misses greatly. Grant's story is the one that ties it all together; he is a star football player who is grappling with the fact that he's probably an alcoholic. Although sometimes it feels like the girls are a little too good to be true, and the loose ends tie up maybe a little too easily, this is a beautiful story of the power of friendship and understanding.
 

Forward Me Back to You by Mitali Perkings
This is a heartwarming story about a group of high school kids going to Kolkata, India for 10 weeks over their summer break to work with a group who helps victims of human trafficking. Handled very delicately, the scenario highlights not only the tragedy of sex slavery that is pervasive worldwide, but also the issues each of the students brings with them. Robin 'Ravi' Thornton was adopted by white American parents after being abandoned in Kolkata. This is his first time back, and he's hoping to find his birth mother. Katina, a jiu jitsu student, is struggling in the aftermath of an assault that makes her very leery of any males. Gracie is looking for a change from her life of often being the caregiver to her younger siblings. They all find a deeper understanding of their place in the world, even if they don't always find what they were looking for. Nicely done.



Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane
Pick a family and you'll find a set of incidences that have shaken it to its core: illness, poverty, substance abuse, violence, loss. And a truism that follows family dysfunction is, as Keane writes, "We repeat what we don't repair". In this soulful novel, two neighboring families are linked initially because the husbands are both NYC cops, then because two of their children become inseparable friends. A long simmering problem erupts in a spasm of violence that leaves both families shattered and estranged. Until...Kate and Peter, the aforementioned friends, find their way back to each other in young adulthood, drawn together by a love that each refused to give up on.
This isn't a simple love story by any means. This novel beautifully demonstrates the way love, forgiveness, and perspective provide the tools to overcome almost anything. I particularly enjoyed the way different characters were able to grow beyond the adversity of the past, not because of any spectacular insight or awakening, but simply because (as in real life) they endured and came out of their hardships stronger, and more cognizant of the frailty of those around them. Truly an inspiring read. 

The Overstory by Richard Powers
I wanted to love this book: Trees! Environmental Warriors! The Pulitzer! Forgive the pun, but this is a book I can only describe as 'wooden'. The first half introduces us to no less than nine separate protagonists, and if that's not enough, the nine different trees that profoundly affected them and led them on their inevitable path to activism. The stories are as slow growing as a white cedar. By the way, the white cedar is the slowest growing tree, and that's just the kind of scintillating fact that's sprinkled throughout the tales of the humans. I get it, the point is that we are all intrinsically intertwined and dependent on each other for the health and future of our planet.
The pace continues to decelerate in the second half of the novel -just as the characters are coming together and the action, such as it is, starts to happen. If long, drawn-out futility sounds like a fun read to you, by all means dive in. If you're interested in a story that uses magical realism to more effectively underscore the way all of nature is related and connected, maybe try Sweet Lamb of Heaven



Aftermath by Kelley Armstrong
Skye's life fell apart after her brother was killed in a school shooting. But Luka wasn't a victim, he was a shooter, and one of the students gunned down was the brother of her best friend/crush, Jesse. Flash forward three years and Skye is moving back to the town that her family fled in the aftermath of the tragedy. Her Dad is gone, Mom is clinically depressed, her grandmother is very ill, and she hasn't seen or spoken to Jesse since the incident-but she's still convinced that her brother was innocent.
Skye is shocked to find that Jesse -previously a straight A student-is troubled and struggling. When she finds herself the victim of a series of cruel pranks and bullying at school, she and Jesse team up to find out what really happened that day, but it seems that someone will do anything to keep the past buried.
This is a timely subject for a mystery, and highlights how an act of violence victimizes many people, including the family of the shooter.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
The Richardsons are a family living in Shaker Heights, OH in the '90s.  The suburb was originally built in the early 1900s to attain a black and white kind of perfectionism, based on rigid rules.  Although life is fairly good here, it is also pedantic and predictable.  Elena Richardson, the matriarch, is the living embodiment of everything that Shaker Heights stands for, which works out okay with her first three kids, but sets her at odds with her youngest, the impetuous and fiery Izzy.
A catalyst enters the picture when Elena rents an apartment to an artist named Mia, a tumbleweed of a person who brings with her a teenaged daughter, Pearl, and a past loaded with secrets.  Pearl finds the Richardsons'  lifestyle intoxicating after the ragtag existence she's accustomed to.  Lexie, Moody, and Trip Richardson all become entangled with Pearl, Izzy is fascinated with Mia, Elena struggles to control everyone and everything, and the swirling mass of churned up emotion will result in huge life changes for all of them.
Desire, envy, and jealousy are well-expressed in this story, but there is very little true warmth or love between characters.  A side story about a white couple attempting to adopt a Chinese baby who was abandoned by her mother is difficult to empathize with because the adoptive mother is cold and entitled and the biological mother seems unable to take care of herself, let alone an infant. 
The point of the book seems to be to highlight the difficulties experienced in the mother-daughter relationship, and how sometimes those we are closest to are the ones we know the least. Perhaps a little of 'love conquers all' thrown in there, too.  However, the story left me despairing for women everywhere, because if these are typical relationships for females, then we have a lot of work to do.

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Jojo is a 13 year old boy in Mississippi who's trying diligently to figure out how to grow into a man of substance.   His elderly black grandfather, whom he lives with, is working hard to make ends meet while taking care of his cancer-stricken wife. Pop is a good man, but he struggles with the accidental death of his own son, and chaotic life of his meth-addicted daughter Leonie, Jojo's mother.
His white grandfather despises him for his color and has never acknowledged his existence. Jojo's father, who is also white, is currently serving time in a state penitentiary for drugs. Things come to a head when Michael is released from the pen and Leonie decides that the family (she, Jojo, and his younger sister, Kayla) will go upstate and pick him up -a happy reunion that will turn out to be anything but.  The story gets a little complicated when a ghost enters the picture.  This 13 year old boy was actually imprisoned with Pop, back when they were kids.  Their only crime, a ugly reality of life in the South, was being black.  This magical twist blends well with Jojo's awakening sense of who he is, and who he wants to be.



Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher
Since a benefit of reading fiction books is gaining empathy and understanding of others' lives, this would certainly help someone who is confused about what it means to be transgender.  Handled sensitively, but not with any pat answers, Brian Katcher gives us a snippet of the life of a teen who feels she is a girl despite having been born male.  A precarious situation occasionally tips to a dangerous place when a straight male friend falls for Sage before learning that she is still anatomically male.  I'm not sure that many straight teen guys would be as open to the relationship that takes place between these two star-crossed kids, but perhaps.

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain

Better than anticipated...Billy Lynn is an war hero, one of the few to survive a brutal assault on his unit when it's stationed in Iraq. Their 'reward' is a media-blitz Victory Tour that ends at the Dallas Cowboys' stadium. There is a gaping contrast between what civilians at home celebrate as 'heroic' and what soldiers in the field have experienced. Excellent book!







Dumplin' by Julie Murphy
This book was very cute, and I don't mean that in a derogatory way. Lots of young adult fiction tries to be cutting edge, writing about the issues, using 'teen' language, and it often turns into a bit of a sludge, and feels false. Dumpling addresses some real life concerns (body image, loss, relationships) and it feels authentic.  Willowdean, is a happy girl who is trying to figure out why a cute, popular boy has a crush on her when she is self-described as fat. She decides the way to break through her self-doubt is to enter the beauty pageant (run by her mother, a former beauty queen who's obsessed with looking 'perfect'). Read this book only if you're prepared to smile to yourself while doing so.
Soon to hit the movie theatre: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4878482/

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Eleanor might be a social misfit, but her wry observations about manners, conventions, and the inexplicable ways people relate to each other all bear the seeds of truth. Her isolated and damaged childhood has left her a stranger in a strange land, until a friendship springs up between herself and Raymond, the IT guy at her office. This is a vast oversimplification, because I don't really want to recount the plot (although it was marvelous), but I want to focus on Honeyman's wit and beautiful use of language. You will see words used in this book (tagine, numerate, epistolary) that have disappeared from the common vernacular, and gems of wisdom ("weak people fear solitude") as well as pithy descriptions (people dancing at a party appear to Eleanor to be "free-form jigging") that will result in laughing out loud. I would compare Honeyman to another favorite author, Karen Joy Fowler. If you enjoyed "Eleanor Oliphant", be sure to pick up We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. Kudos for all the Sense and Sensibility allusions!


Maybe I Will by Laurie Gray
Very quick read, about a student who is violently victimized and doesn't know where to seek help. I'm not sure the rapidity with which the victim sank into alcohol abuse was plausible, but very, very, very clever twist by not letting the reader know if the main character was male or female. Especially in light of the fact that s/he is the victim of a sexual assault. This unique feature has quickly becoming a talking point between me and the several students I have recommended the book to -provocative!