Katherine Harbour's Blog - Posts Tagged "ya-mystery"

We Were Liars
Told from the POV of Cadence Sinclair, daughter of a well-to-do family, the story is immediately intriguing. Cadence suffers from terrible headaches caused by an accident one summer, an accident she scarcely recalls.
It happened at the family's vacation spot in Massachusetts, near Martha's Vineyard. Since childhood, Cadence has met her cousins, Miriam and Johnny, every summer, along with their friend Gat. A complicated romance develops between Gat and Cadence.
With overtones of Shakespeare's King Lear, Cadence's story is a mystery the reader must piece together. What happened to her on the island? Why is her family so secretive? And why is Gat suddenly avoiding her?
The holes in Cadence's memory , the threat of a horrifying reveal, all make for a narrative spell told in Cadence's troubled voice.

The Creeping
Sometimes YA horror scares me more than adult. And this was one of those.
Stella is a typical teen, but, in childhood, she survived a potential kidnapping while another girl did not. She has no memory of what took the other little girl, but she's haunted by it. She's the cool girl in town, her friends the stars of their galaxy. The friends are distinctive and beautifully drawn, including Sam, the geeky but handsome ex-best friend.
There's something in the woods, an urban legend that maybe some of the locals still believe in, a monster that devours children. Stella has a mystery on her hands and must remember what she and her friends encountered when they were children, before whatever took Stella comes for her again. If you liked Tana French's In The Woods, you'll love this terrifying mystery.

The Thousandth Floor
In a lavishly imagined future, where the main characters' world is a one-thousand floor building in New York City, Leda is the character with the most disadvantages. She isn't super rich and she's fighting a drug addiction. Rylin is the girl who's on her own, somewhere on the poverty line, and taking care of her sister. Avery and Eris are privileged, but have family problems. Avery is in love with her adopted brother, Atlas. Eris has learned herfather isn't her father and she'll lose everything. Watt is a boy who's intelligence is underestimated because he's middle class. He falls for Avery.
The book begins with a girl falling from the thousandth floor. It's a mystery woven with the complexity of forbidden love, crushed dreams, and Big Mistakes. It's also a dazzling and refreshing view of a slick future for the wealthy, and not so much for the poor. Each of the characters has interesting stories, and I cared enough to dread which girl was going to fall. A page-turning mystery with complicated characters.

The Good Demon
A contemporary dark fantasy. Clare has lost her beloved demon due to a childhood exorcism. The demon (or imaginary friend) always took the form of a little girl who protected Care and showed her wonders. Clare feels lost and depressed, in withdrawal. She wants her demon back and will do anything to get her.
With some help from two town eccentrics, and perhaps the ghost of a girl like herself, Clare ventures down a dangerous path to confront a terrifying evil.
Loved this creepy modern fairy tale about how loneliness and imaginary friends can be dangerous.

Sawkill Girls
The island of Sawkill Rock is haunted by an ancient evil. Teenage Marion has arrived with her older sister Charlotte and her mother. Zoey lives on the island with her sheriff father and has recently had her best friend disappear. Beautiful Val is from one of the wealthy families on the island, and lives with her strict mother. And Val has a horrifying secret.
The three girls are drawn together in a tangle of betrayal, deceit, love, and terror. The island, with its Nantucket vibe, also has a life of its own. Marion, Zoey, and Val are exquisitely drawn characters. The theme of extraordinary girls and useless male authority is Buffyesque in the best way. This is a horror story, and one I'm glad I decided not to read at night.
One of my favorite horror reads.

The Accident Season
In an Irish town, Cara is seventeen and living with her family through another 'accident season', a time of year that is literally what it sounds like. Even her former stepbrother, Sam, is affected, as much as her sister and widowed mother. Only her best friend Bea isn't prone to accidents.
Cara is haunted by a girl named Elsie, who, weirdly, appears in all of the photographs Cara takes. As Halloween draws near and Cara and her friends plan the party of all parties, ghosts and secrets from the past begin to tinker with Cara's reality.
A Halloween story of family secrets, with a cast of interesting characters and a contemporary Irish setting. The relationships and the uncanny accident season are what made this book for me:)

Firekeeper's Daughter
Daunis Fontaine is a teenager in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. She's active in her community on the reservation, volunteering for the tribal elders. She also runs, and was once a star on the school hockey team. Her father was Ojibwe and her mother is white.
Her world turns upside-down when her best friend is murdered by her ex-boyfriend, whose promising life has descended into drugs.
Daunis has befriended the attractive new boy at school, Jamie, only to learn his secret is about to drag her into a dangerous investigation that involves her community and people she's grown up with.
I loved how Daunis's Ojibwe community is beautifully rendered, rich with meaning and a support system for Daunis. She joins the ranks of Nancy Drew and Veronica Mars as she seeks the meth dealer causing death in her world.
A great read for anyone who wants to submerge themselves in a mystery and the complicated life of a young woman who has to navigate a maze of familiar faces and find the treacherous hearts.