As she did with a Georgia peach orchard for her debut, Peaches (and its companions), Jody Lynn Anderson captivatingly depicts the dynamics of a small town, this time on the banks of Lake Michigan after the tourists leave and the cold weather sets in.
The author also captures the economic disparity among three teens: wealthy, beautiful Pauline Boden; outcast Liam Witte, whose father runs an automotive repair shop and touts his atheistic views in a town of believers; and newcomer Maggie Larsen. Maggie and her family move from Chicago to her uncle's "ramshackle" house in Gill Creek, Wis., after her parents fall on hard times. Free-spirited Pauline seems refreshingly unaware of her stunning beauty and gloms onto brainy, determined Maggie, with plans to attend Northwestern. Pauline introduces Maggie to Liam, whom she's known since age five. Maggie instantly sees that Liam is in love with Pauline, yet Pauline keeps their relationship platonic. Maggie develops feelings for Liam, and readers will suspect there's trouble ahead for this triangle. Meanwhile, beautiful teenage girls turn up dead in the water, one after another, and a ghostly voice steps in intermittently to speak of the land and its people, past and present.
Anderson crafts a psychological thriller more than a detective story, and nothing wraps up neatly. Instead, the author explores the unusual kind of haunting that happens in a town where the lore becomes the fabric of their daily lives. Maggie's feelings of isolation, Pauline's sense of being trapped, and the claustrophobia of Gill Creek all play a role in this tragedy. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness