Ages 12 up.Romance, friendship, and dark, bone-chilling fear fill the pages of this 'genuine and truly eerie' ( RT Book Reviews) debut in the spirit of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Unanswered questions leave chills long after the last page. While the dialogue between Stella and Zoey can sound artificial ('That hardly proves anything, Slutty Sherlock') and the culprit is easily guessed, the intense peer relationships are strikingly realistic. Debut author Sirowy deftly balances two compelling storylines a dark murder mystery and a tug-of-war rivalry for Stella's attention between controlling friend Zoey and new love interest (and former best friend) Sam. The closer she gets to the truth, the more she is threatened, including ominous words from a wizened healer, 'You ain't monster enough to survive.' With Stella's workaholic father absent and a detective always one step behind, she digs deeper, uncovering ritual sacrifices and a long history of disappearances that lead to heart-pounding confrontations. As the old case is rehashed, Stella has flashbacks of that missing day, spurring her own investigation into Jeanie's disappearance. Eleven years later, a girl resembling Jeanie has been found murdered. Stella Cambren cannot recall what happened in the woods of Savage, Minn., when, at age six, she returned home without her friend Jeanie. Suddenly memories of that haunting day begin to return, and when Stella discovers that other red-headed girls have gone missing as well, she begins to suspect that something sinister is at work.Īnd before the summer ends, Stella will learn the hard way that if you hunt for monsters, you will find them. Then along comes a corpse, a little girl who washes up in an ancient cemetery after a mudslide, and who has red hair just like Jeanie did. She’s got a great best friend, a hookup with an irresistibly crooked smile, and two months of beach days stretching out before her. She’s the lucky one who survived, and sure, the case is still cloaked in mystery-and it’s her small town’s ugly legacy-but Stella is focused on the coming summer. Now Stella is seventeen, and she’s over it.

Jeanie was never seen or heard from again.

Stella returned minutes later, with no memory of what happened. Twelve years ago Stella and Jeanie vanished while picking strawberries. Romance, friendship, and dark, bone-chilling fear fill the pages of this “genuine and truly eerie” ( RT Book Reviews) debut in the spirit of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.

The creeping by alexandra sirowy