Books Read in 2024: Four-Star Children's and YA

I am angry at my anxiety today. I keep feeling this low-grade sense of dread the night before work days. I guess this could partly be ascribed to the fact that I'm not sleeping great, and with Matt away Lucy is prone to paw at me every couple of hours to go out and then see if maybe breakfast can be served four-to-six hours early, so even if I do fall asleep, it doesn't last. But mostly it just feels like it's a drag to go to work. 

And it's not! I like my job! I get in there, and I carry books around, and I wheel carts around, and I see the kids, many of whom really really like me, and they tell me about why they like SpongeBob books or Lego books or princess books or Dog Man books, and they tell me about how they injured their wrist on the week-end so it's very difficult for them to turn pages, and then they all say good-bye to me (sometimes really loudly), and it's kind of awesome, for the most part. So maybe my nervous system could stop throwing a fucking fit about it? 

And Lord, the January brain fog. Things I did today: tried to sign in to my work computer three times, not understanding what wasn't working, then realized I was entering my personal email address instead of my work one; made a list of fairy tales to pull for a teacher, found most of them, spent several long minutes searching for one and finally realized I was looking for Les Trois Petits Cochons in the English picture book section; carried the books into the hallway on the way to the staff room to put them in the teacher's mailbox, then realized I didn't have my keys and the staff room is sometimes locked. I saw a teacher ahead of me open the door and go in, but when I got to the door it was locked. I stood there in a daze for a second, before I realized she had gone one door past the staff room into the bathroom. In my very limited defense, the door does say Staff on it. Good thing I didn't knock?

Deep breath. Pictures of Lucy, during and after a snowy walk, in case Engie's going into withdrawal.

Four Star Reads

Children's

Kingfisher Days by Susan Coyne: Synopsis from Goodreads: A magical tale of friendship and wonder -- the perfect gift for the imaginative child in all of us. One summer, in a hedge near her family's cottage in Kenora, five-year-old Susan Coyne discovered an overgrown stone fireplace. Her father said it was the home of Uncle Joe Spondoolak, an elf who'd moved in after the cottage had burned down long ago. Susan, a fanciful child, decided to become keeper of the hearth, tidying it up and leaving little gifts for the handfuls of wild strawberries, daisy chains, a tiny birchbark canoe. Overnight the gifts would disappear. One morning, there was a tiny piece of carefully folded pink paper wedged in between the mossy stones. To Helen Susan Cameron GreetingsHer Majesty, Queen Mab, has instructed me to thank you for making a home for all her people. Thus began Susan's correspondence with a precocious young fairy princess, Nootsie Tah, and her indoctrination into the world of the great and little people. Susan took the letter next door to Mr. Moir, because he knew all sorts of interesting things. Sure enough, he had an entire library filled with books about characters such as Puck, Ariel and Oberon. The letters from Nootsie Tah continued, and that summer Susan developed two unique one with a proud princess from a mystical land, and the other with a gentle gardener with infinite wisdom and patience. These would sustain her throughout her life.

I heard the author interviewed about this book years ago, and bought a copy, and then for some reason stuck it on the shelf and didn't read it. My daughter found it and wanted to take it to university to read and lend to a friend who had it on her To Be Read shelf, so I read it before she left. It is both a charming illustration of one child's summer of wonder and enchantment, and a snapshot of Canadian family cottage life at the time.

Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow (Nevermoor #1) by Jessica Townsend: Synopsis from Goodreads: A cursed girl escapes death and finds herself in a magical world - but is then tested beyond her wildest imagination.

Morrigan Crow is cursed. Having been born on Eventide, the unluckiest day for any child to be born, she's blamed for all local misfortunes, from hailstorms to heart attacks--and, worst of all, the curse means that Morrigan is doomed to die at midnight on her eleventh birthday.

But as Morrigan awaits her fate, a strange and remarkable man named Jupiter North appears. Chased by black-smoke hounds and shadowy hunters on horseback, he whisks her away into the safety of a secret, magical city called Nevermoor.

It's then that Morrigan discovers Jupiter has chosen her to contend for a place in the city's most prestigious organization: the Wundrous Society. In order to join, she must compete in four difficult and dangerous trials against hundreds of other children, each boasting an extraordinary talent that sets them apart - an extraordinary talent that Morrigan insists she does not have. To stay in the safety of Nevermoor for good, Morrigan will need to find a way to pass the tests - or she'll have to leave the city to confront her deadly fate.

-”’But…Morrigan doesn’t mind. Do you, Morrigan?’

‘Mind what?’ Morrigan asked. ‘That I’m going to be blotted out of existence in a few hours and you’re planning a wardrobe for my replacement? Not in the slightest.’ She shoved a forkful of parsnip into her mouth.

‘Oh, for goodness’ sake!’ Grandmother hissed, glaring down the table at her son. ‘We weren’t going to bring up the D-word.’”

“‘Bad news, Mog.’ Jupiter slid down the curved marble banister one Thursday afternoon and landed in the foyer, where Morrigan and Martha were folding napkins into swans. Martha’s swans looked perfect, like they could fly off in formation at any moment. Morrigan’s looked like drunk, angry pigeons.”

From school library. Familiar formula - child is treated terribly by family of origin and then spirited away to a magical land by a protector. Stellar example, though. Fabulous world-making, great characters, solid story and appealingly playful voice. I've been recommending it often, and trying to get it into my other libraries. 

Let the Monster Out by Chad Lucas: Synopsis from Goodreads: An equal parts heart-pounding and heartfelt middle-grade mystery about facing––and accepting––your fears, perfect for fans of Stranger Things and The Parker Inheritance Bones Malone feels like he can’t do anything right in his new small He almost punched the son of the woman who babysits him and his brothers, he’s one of the only Black kids in Langille, and now his baseball team (the one place where he really feels like he shines) just lost their first game. To make matters worse, things in town are getting weird . His mom isn’t acting like herself at all—she’s totally spaced out, almost like a zombie. And then he and his brothers have the same dream—one where they’re running from some of their deepest fears, like a bear and an eerie cracked mirror that Bones would rather soon forget. 

Kyle Specks feels like he can never say the right thing at the right time. He thinks he might be neurodivergent, but he hasn’t gotten an official diagnosis yet. His parents worry that the world might be too hard for him and try to protect him, but Kyle knows they can’t do that forever. Even though he’s scared, he can’t just stand by and do nothing while things in this town get stranger and stranger, especially not after he and Bones find a mysterious scientist’s journal that might hold answers about what’s going on. But when faced with seemingly impossible situations, a shady corporation, and their own worst nightmares, will Kyle and Bones be brave enough to admit they're scared? Or will the fear totally consume and control them?

-”He had secretly admired the smaller boys’ reckless confidence on the baseball field, but now he understood clearly: Bones Malone was pure havoc. He’d barged into Kyle’s house, borrowed his clothes, built a hideous sandwich in his kitchen, and thrust himself into his world the same way he’d jum;ped into the river: with no regard whatsoever for logic, boundaries, or basic safety. The potential for disaster was high.

But he was fascinating. And he wanted Kyle’s help.

You’re exactly who I need.

Kyle was going to need another whiteboard.”

From school library. Okay, there was a lot going on here with the characters. In less capable hands the plot could have collapsed under the weight, but the author made it work. Some representation was casual, some was more pointed, but it all served the plot. Sometimes I over-sympathize with the protagonist, and it was difficult for me to not be wholeheartedly on his side even when other characters had a point, but in the end I appreciated everyone's viewpoint and all of the nuances and character flaws (except the bitchy baby-sitter, I wanted to strangle her, I am crap at maintaining objective distance when a child is treated with injustice in a book). Chad Lucas is a Canadian author who lives in Nova Scotia and is a descendant of the African Nova Scotian community of Lucasville, so adds some nice Canadian content to the library. I've added his other books to my wish list.

Y.A.

MYSTERY

Truly, Devious (Truly Devious #1) by Maureen Johnson: Synopsis from Goodreads: Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists. It was founded by Albert Ellingham, an early twentieth century tycoon, who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles, twisting pathways, and gardens. “A place,” he said, “where learning is a game.” Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym “Truly, Devious.” It became one of the great unsolved crimes of American history. 

True-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy, and she has an ambitious plan: She will solve this cold case. That is, she will solve the case when she gets a grip on her demanding new school life and her housemates: the inventor, the novelist, the actor, the artist, and the jokester. But something strange is happening. Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Someone has gotten away with murder. 

The two interwoven mysteries of this first book in the Truly Devious series dovetail brilliantly, and Stevie Bell will continue her relentless quest for the murderers in books two and three.

-”’Those are strange angels,’ her mother said, craning to look.

‘They’re not angels,’ Stevie said. ‘They’re sphinxes. They’re mythical creatures that ask you riddles before you’re allowed to enter a place. If you get it wrong, they eat you. Like from Oedipus. The Riddle of the Sphinx. That’s a sphinx. Not to be confused with Spanx, which is a sidearm in the holster of the diet-industrial complex.’”

The premise is extremely cool, and the prologue was killer. I think the rest ends up at three and a half stars, if I don't deduct anything for the ending which doesn't really wrap up anything, my feeling being that even if you're continuing a series you should at least provide closure on one issue at the end of the first book. However, in copy-pasting the synopsis, I see that if I had read it thoroughly I would have been better prepared, so I guess I have no one to blame but myself. Well, and the author, because still, lame.

The setting is wonderful. Stevie is a pretty good character, as well as the supporting cast. It's a little more plot-driven than preoccupied with nuanced characterization, but the characters aren't two-dimensional either. I will definitely read the next book (it's a mountain boarding school with murder, duh), but there better not be another freaking cliff-hanger.

The Vanishing Stair (Truly Devious #2) by Maureen Johnson: Synopsis from Goodreads: All Stevie Bell wanted was to find the key to the Ellingham mystery, but instead she found her classmate dead. And while she solved that murder, the crimes of the past are still waiting in the dark. Just as Stevie feels she’s on the cusp of putting it together, her parents pull her out of Ellingham academy.

For her own safety they say. She must move past this obsession with crime. Now that Stevie’s away from the school of topiaries and secret tunnels, and her strange and endearing friends, she begins to feel disconnected from the rest of the world. At least she won’t have to see David anymore. David, who she kissed. David, who lied to her about his identity—son of despised politician Edward King. Then King himself arrives at her house to offer a deal: He will bring Stevie back to Ellingham immediately. In return, she must play nice with David. King is in the midst of a campaign and can’t afford his son stirring up trouble. If Stevie’s at school, David will stay put. The tantalizing riddles behind the Ellingham murders are still waiting to be unraveled, and Stevie knows she’s so close. But the path to the truth has more twists and turns than she can imagine—and moving forward involves hurting someone she cares for. In New York Times bestselling author Maureen Johnson’s second novel of the Truly Devious series, nothing is free, and someone will pay for the truth with their life.

-”She had wished so much to work on this case, and now here she was, doing deals with the devil.

Maybe, she wondered, that was what it was like to plan a murder. Maybe you make successive bad deals with yourself that you can’t back out of, until you make one that can never be reversed.”

There was kind of another cliffhanger, but at least one thing was wrapped up. I was actually pretty impressed by this as a sequel. The two timelines are both engaging - particularly the one in the past, with its faded glamour and patina of tragedy. I like the way Stevie is not blind to the fact that her compulsion to investigate true crime is not without its pitfalls, and that it is, in fact, a compulsion. Representation is incidental and not clunky (gay characters, non-binary characters). I did not love the description of the love interest, which made both the character and the author seem pretentious ("His eyes always looked half-closed, but they had more life behind them than most", "He wore a Rolex with a shattered face" - gag).

The Hand on the Wall (Truly Devious #3) by Maureen Johnson: Synopsis from Goodreads: Ellingham Academy must be cursed. Three people are now dead. One, a victim of either a prank gone wrong or a murder. Another, dead by misadventure. And now, an accident in Burlington has claimed another life. All three in the wrong place at the wrong time. All at the exact moment of Stevie’s greatest triumph . . .

She knows who Truly Devious is. She’s solved it. The greatest case of the century.
At least, she thinks she has. With this latest tragedy, it’s hard to concentrate on the past. Not only has someone died in town, but David disappeared of his own free will and is up to something. Stevie is sure that somehow—somehow—all these things connect. The three deaths in the present. The deaths in the past. The missing Alice Ellingham and the missing David Eastman. Somewhere in this place of riddles and puzzles there must be answers.
Then another accident occurs as a massive storm heads toward Vermont. This is too much for the parents and administrators. Ellingham Academy is evacuated. Obviously, it’s time for Stevie to do something stupid. It’s time to stay on the mountain and face the storm—and a murderer. In the tantalizing finale to the Truly Devious trilogy, New York Times bestselling author Maureen Johnson expertly tangles her dual narrative threads and ignites an explosive end for all who’ve walked through Ellingham Academy.

-”When spring came to the Ellingham Mountain, she came in glory, whipping her robes of fresh air and spreading fecund greenery over the mountain like a goddess on a fecund greenery-spreading binge.”

Reading over my notes for this book reminded me that the writing was also quite fun and funny. I just kept reading every book as it came available from the library, and was not disappointed. The conclusion to the original mystery is sad and satisfying.

The Box in the Woods (Truly Devious #4) by Maureen Johnson: Synopsis from Goodreads: Amateur sleuth Stevie Bell needs a good murder. After catching a killer at her high school, she’s back at home for a normal (that means boring) summer.
But then she gets a message from the owner of Sunny Pines, formerly known as Camp Wonder Falls—the site of the notorious unsolved case, the Box in the Woods Murders. Back in 1978, four camp counselors were killed in the woods outside of the town of Barlow Corners, their bodies left in a gruesome display. The new owner offers Stevie an invitation: Come to the camp and help him work on a true crime podcast about the case.
Stevie agrees, as long as she can bring along her friends from Ellingham Academy. Nothing sounds better than a summer spent together, investigating old murders. But something evil still lurks in Barlow Corners. When Stevie opens the lid on this long-dormant case, she gets much more than she bargained for. The Box in the Woods will make room for more victims. This time, Stevie may not make it out alive.

”’That’s the last entry,’ Stevie said, gently closing the book.

For almost an hour, she had read from the diary. Her throat was dry and her voice was starting to crack a bit. Janelle had seen this and come over with a can of sparkling water. Stevie didn’t like sparkling water, but she guzzled it and then had to turn her head and try to conceal the massive belch this caused. She was not successful.

Poirot never burped after he identified the murderer.”

How many people are they going to kill at this boarding school? I wondered, but all good, there was a scene change, and what do you know, Stevie Bell is Young Jessica Fletcher, bodies just drop wherever she goes, what's a girl to do? I'm snarking, but this was maybe my favourite book of the whole series. There's just something about a long-ago mystery, and revisiting what all the players were like, and then some small detail bringing everything into focus, and I enjoyed Stevie and her friends making fun of the Box guy who self-styles himself as a 'disruptor'.

Nine Liars (Truly Devious #5) by Maureeen Johnson: Synopsis from Goodreads: Senior year at Ellingham Academy for Stevie Bell isn’t going well. Her boyfriend, David, is studying in London. Her friends are obsessed with college applications. With the cold case of the century solved, Stevie is adrift. There is nothing to distract her from the questions pinging around her brain—questions about college, love, and life in general.
Relief comes when David invites Stevie and her friends to join him for study abroad, and his new friend Izzy introduces her to a double-murder cold case. In 1995, nine friends from Cambridge University went to a country house and played a drunken game of hide-and-seek. Two were found in the woodshed the next day, murdered with an ax.
The case was assumed to be a burglary gone wrong, but one of the remaining seven saw something she can’t explain. This was no break-in. Someone’s lying about what happened in the woodshed. Seven suspects. Two murders. One killer still playing a deadly game.

-”She had done this. She had led her friends on this trip. With a lie.

Lies, she noted, took energy. They weighed a lot. She had to think about everything she said and did now to support the lie. It sat there in her head, giving off vibes.’

Lies were radioactive.”

Same thing, but make it British. It's possible I was developing a problem. The mystery was still solid, and Stevie reaches new heights in her obsession with true crime overriding every other impulse in her life. I was outraged when there wasn't a next book, but it was probably a good thing.

Death at Morning House by Maureen Johnson: Synopsis from Goodreads: The fire wasn’t Marlowe Wexler’s fault. Dates should be hot, but not hot enough to warrant literal firefighters. Akilah, the girl Marlowe has been in love with for years, will never go out with her again. No one dates an accidental arsonist.
With her house-sitting career up in flames, it seems the universe owes Marlowe a new summer job, and that’s how she ends up at Morning House, a mansion built on an island in the 1920s and abandoned shortly thereafter. It’s easy enough, giving tours. Low risk of fire. High chance of getting bored talking about stained glass and nut cutlets and Prohibition. Oh, and the deaths. Did anyone mention the deaths?

In my defense, I read this in November, months after the others. It was just as good, though - Johnson really has a gift for creating the doomed cohort in the past and then juxtaposing it with the events of the present. I keep resolving to move away from YA, but the teen drama is treated with a light enough touch that it doesn't trivialize it but keeps a healthy sense of the absurdity. 

The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson: Synopsis from Goodreads: A new true-crime fueled mystery thriller about a girl determined to uncover the shocking truth about her missing mother while filming a documentary on the unsolved case.

Lights. Camera. Lies.
18-year-old Bel has lived her whole life in the shadow of her mom’s mysterious disappearance. Sixteen years ago, Rachel Price vanished and young Bel was the only witness, but she has no memory of it. Rachel is gone, long presumed dead, and Bel wishes everyone would just move on.
But the case is dragged up from the past when the Price family agree to a true crime documentary. Bel can’t wait for filming to end, for life to go back to normal. And then the impossible happens. Rachel Price reappears, and life will never be normal again. Rachel has an unbelievable story about what happened to her. Unbelievable, because Bel isn’t sure it’s real. If Rachel is lying, then where has she been all this time? And – could she be dangerous? With the cameras still rolling, Bel must uncover the truth about her mother, and find out why Rachel Price really came back from the dead . . .

-”She opened the nightstand drawer, contents rattling as she did. Lip balms and hand sanitizers, a little saltshaker from Rosa’s Pizza, bookmarks, pens, one AirPod – that one she felt real bad about – nail polish, a glove with the tag still on, a little figurine that might have been a Happy Meal toy, a tiny screwdriver and the black marble queen from the chessboard at Royalty Inn. Bel added one more secret to the pile: the scrunchie she’d taken today off a freshman’s desk in the science lab. The tug of shame as Bel welcomed it home, skin alive with the feeling, itchy and warm. Looking down at her menagerie of stolen things, each one small enough to hide in one hand.

Bel closed the drawer, hiding them away. Hidden but not gone. Things couldn’t get up and leave like that. Unless she was in a Pixar movie, and Bel was pretty sure she wasn’t.”

This is another case where I should maybe stop chasing the high with this author. Eve and I absolutely loved the Good Girl's Guide to Murder trilogy, and then the next book was a dismal failure in my opinion. This was fine, except compared to GGG. Several reviewers complained that Bel was an unlikable character - I actually admired that the character was written very realistically for someone whose background is trauma and whose life has been lived under exploitive scrutiny. The pacing lags a bit in the middle, but overall I would recommend this to a teen reader - it's an appealing read.

Under This Red Rock by Mindy McGinnis: Synopsis from Goodreads: Neely’s monsters don’t always follow her rules, so when the little girl under her bed, the man in her closet, and the disembodied voice that shadows her every move become louder, she knows she’s in trouble.
With a history of mental illness in her family, and the suicide of her older brother heavy on her mind, Neely takes a job as a tour guide in the one place her monsters can’t follow—the caverns. There she can find peace. There she can pretend to be normal. There . . . she meets Mila.
Mila is everything Neely isn’t—beautiful, strong, and confident. As the two become closer, Neely’s innocent crush grows into something more. When a midnight staff party exposes Neely to drugs, she follows Mila’s lead . . . only to have her hallucinations escalate.
When Mila is found brutally murdered in the caverns, Neely has to admit that her memories of that night are vague at best. With her monsters now out in the open, and her grip on reality slipping, Neely must figure out who killed Mila . . . and face the possibility that it might have been her.

Award-winning author Mindy McGinnis delivers a powerful psychological thriller, deftly exploring the dark places in the earth and the human mind, where what is real and imaginary isn’t so easily distinguishable.

-”’You okay?’ Destiny asks, her well-being check-ins apparently not over for the day.

‘Yeah, I’m fine,’ I tell her.

Over the years, I’ve perfected the delivery of this line. Being fine cannot be perky, which comes off as trying too hard. It cannot be morose, which clearly identifies it as a lie. The trick to being fine is to hit the perfect five, which exists somewhere between anhedonia and euphoria.”

Not to sound like a broken record (totally about to sound like a broken record) - Mindy McGinnis really likes to shake it up with every new book. Which is awesome, except Eve and I really just want variations on The Female of the Species (so good. So, so good). Other than that, good book. Realistic depiction of mental illness, gay representation, suspense and character growth. 

Burden Falls by Kat Ellis: Synopsis from Goodreads: Riverdale meets Stephen King in the terrifying new thriller from the author of Harrow Lake. The town of Burden Falls drips with superstition, from rumors of its cursed waterfall to Dead-Eyed Sadie, the disturbing specter who haunts it. Ava Thorn grew up right beside the falls, and since a horrific accident killed her parents a year ago, she's been plagued by nightmares in which Sadie comes calling—nightmares so chilling, Ava feels as if she’ll never wake up. 

But when someone close to Ava is brutally murdered and she’s the primary suspect, she begins to wonder if the stories might be more than legends—and if the ghost haunting her dreams might be terrifyingly real. Whatever secrets Burden Falls is hiding, there's a killer on the loose . . . with a vendetta against the Thorns.

-"Don't get me wrong. I agree Freya's death is tragic -- I'm not a monster. what's bugging me is that people aren't upset, not exactly. There's this hunger in the air, like two dead bodies in just over a week isn't enough for them now, and they want something worse -- some twist to make the horror fresh again."

And finally, an author who does some different things from book to book that I am NOT going to bitch about. The last book I read was a little more mystical, whereas this one was closer to a straight mystery/thriller (unless you were supposed to think Dead-Eyed Sadie was really a thing, which I didn't). I usually roll my eyes at the 'x meets x' hooks that publishers use, but 'Riverdale meets Stephen King' is actually pretty accurate here. Again, I found Ava's voice appealing (obviously I have a thing for witty, slightly snarky teenagers, can't imagine why. I come from a family that deals with any adversity with black humour, so this was all highly relatable. There is a love interest storyline, but it's actually really well done and feels organic. I just ordered another Kat Ellis book that I can't find in my library.

HORROR

The Black Girl Survives in This One edited by Desiree S. Evans and Saraciea J. Fennell: Synopsis from Goodreads: Be warned, dear reader: The Black girls survive in this one. 

Celebrating a new generation of bestselling and acclaimed Black writers, The Black Girl Survives in This One makes space for Black girls in horror. Fifteen chilling and thought-provoking stories place Black girls front and center as heroes and survivors who slay monsters, battle spirits, and face down death. Prepare to be terrified and left breathless by the pieces in this anthology.

The bestselling and acclaimed authors include Erin E. Adams, Monica Brashears, Charlotte Nicole Davis, Desiree S. Evans, Saraciea J. Fennell, Zakiya Dalila Harris, Daka Hermon, Justina Ireland, L. L. McKinney, Brittney Morris, Maritza & Maika Moulite, Eden Royce, and Vincent Tirado, with a foreword by Tananarive Due.

Enjoyable. A lot of traditional tropes - cornfields, graveyards, abandoned space factories, bayous, cabins by the lake - freshened and related to various aspects of living as a BIPOC, with several stories also containing queer representation. My favourite story is probably the first one, Harvesters by L.L. Mckinney - I can't resist a creepy cornfield. Queeniums for Greenium by Brittney Morris is a hilarious/infuriating take on MLMs. The Brides of Devil's Bayou by Desiree S. Evans is a great example of black Southern Gothic. And Foxhunt by Charlotte Nicole Davis - no surprises on what the 'foxhunt' actually is, but the execution is excellent. 

Tender Beasts by Liselle Sambury: Synopsis from Goodreads: After her private school is rocked by a gruesome murder, a teen tries to find the real killer and clear her brother’s name in this psychological thriller perfect for fans of The Taking of Jake Livingston and Ace of Spades. Sunny Behre has four siblings, but only one is a murderer. 

With the death of Sunny’s mother, matriarch of the wealthy Behre family, Sunny’s once picture-perfect life is thrown into turmoil. Her mother had groomed her to be the family’s next leader, so Sunny is confused when the only instructions her mother leaves is a mysterious note: “Take care of Dom.”

The problem is, her youngest brother, Dom, has always been a near-stranger to Sunny…and seemingly a dangerous one, if found guilty of his second-degree murder charge. Still, Sunny is determined to fulfill her mother’s dying wish. But when a classmate is gruesomely murdered, and Sunny finds her brother with blood on his hands, her mother’s simple request becomes a lot more complicated. Dom swears he’s innocent, and although Sunny isn’t sure she believes him, she takes it upon herself to look into the murder—made all the more urgent by the discovery of another body. And another.

As Sunny and Dom work together to track down the culprit, Sunny realizes her other siblings have their own dark secrets. Soon she may have to choose: preserve the family she’s always loved or protect the brother she barely knows—and risk losing everything her mother worked so hard to build.

-”’We’re laughing too loud – disturbing the peace. They’re always paying so much attention to us. But at the end of the day, if that was some white dude’s girl that drowned, it would have been an open-and-shut-case accident. Look at Duane, even. Had him on the news for all of a day, but now Ziggy’s gone and there’s protestors and they got her picture up everywhere. And, like, I wish Torri and Ziggy and all of them were alive, I’m not shitting on them. It’s just, like, it’s not the same for all of us. Dom is my boy, and it’s fucked up too that if it were me, without a dime to my name, they’d have already tried me as an adult and locked me up.’

I didn’t know what to say to him. Nothing he’d said was wrong. Justice wasn’t supposed to discriminate, but of course it did. And we were exploiting it too. Using every bit of money and influence to get Dom whatever we could in a way that Black people without the money couldn’t.”

This was a little different, refreshingly. Another Canadian setting - Toronto. BIPOC author, authentic references to institutionalized racism, particularly in the justice system A complicated family dynamic, parents whose desperation to see their children safe and successful yields horrifying results, and a satisfyingly twisty occult secret, without a lot of annoying love interest stuff.