Catie Disabato imbues her follow-up to The Ghost Network with mystery and a little bit of the supernatural. Eve's best friend Ezra is missing, and he couldn't have disappeared at a worse time. It's the anniversary of Eve's friend Miguel's suicide, and this weekend she really needs Ezra to be at her side. It doesn't matter that she still talks to Miggy. Her work as a medium and witch has allowed her to communicate with Miggy's ghost via text messages. With one friend MIA and her other friend, Nozlee, the reason for him fleeing, Eve feels the absence of her group of friends more keenly. Though everyone thinks she's overreacting, Eve begins her weekend hunting for Ezra across Los Angeles's many neighborhoods with frantic energy fueled by overpriced cocktails and cocaine.
Disabato immerses U Up? in the world of 20-somethings in L.A. through Eve's group of friends. Everyone is connected to their phones, everyone is queer, and everyone curates their online persona heavily. As Eve lurks around L.A.'s finest bars trying to find Ezra, the strong connections to social media and her community help and hinder her search for her best friend. Disabato doesn't shy away from showing Eve as she really is--a complicated woman trying to manage her mental health (albeit poorly) during a challenging weekend complicated by the very literal ghosts of her city. Eve searches for clues like a classic private eye while putting together the mystery of why her best friend ghosted her. --Amy Dittmeier, librarian