Synopses & Reviews
The psychological labyrinth of a young womans insidious connection to the sea, from the Edgar Award nominated author of
Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone.
Callie Morgan has long lived choked by the failure of her own lungs, the result of an elusive pulmonary illness that has plagued her since childhood. A childhood marked early by the drowning death of her mothera death to which Callie was the sole witness. Her father has moved them inland, away from the memories of the California coast her mother loved so much and toward promises of recoveryand the escape of denialin arid, landlocked air.
But after years of running away, the promise of a life-changing job for her father brings Callie and him back to the coast, to Florida, where Callies symptoms miraculously disappear. For once, life seems delightfully normal. But the oceans edge offers more than healing air
it holds a magnetic pull, drawing Callie closer and closer to the chilly, watery embrace that claimed her mother. Returned to the ocean, Callie comes of age and comes into a family destiny that holds generations of secrets and very few happy endings.
Review
Praise for 17 and Gone:
“This is ingeniously crafted” - BCCB, starred review
“Suma writes beautifully, drawing readers into Laurens story and her psyche with painstaking care until the storys jolting conclusion” - Publishers Weekly
“A compelling, skillfully written page-turner” - Booklist
“An engrossing read” - VOYA
“Sumas exquisite sentence-level writing and fine eye for creepy detail are in abundant evidence” - Kirkus Reviews
“Elegant, riveting, powerful, and poignant, this suspenseful, supernatural tale slips under the skin, inking out a haunting tapestry of menace and madness. Nova Ren Suma is, quite simply, a masterful storyteller and one of my favorite writers.”
- Libba Bray, Printz Award winner and New York Times bestselling author of The Diviners and A Great and Terrible Beauty
“17 and Gone is a sharply compelling story of what happens when we stop seeing whats in front of us and start looking for whats already gone. Intricately plotted and surreally imagined... Suma breaks reality and twists it back together in a devastating and beautiful new form.”
- Kiersten White, New York Times bestselling author of Paranormalcy and Mind Games
Review
"Rosenfields paragraphs are so suffused with the pull of the tide that it becomes a full-body throb, drawing Callie down, down, down to exactly where you think shes heading: the deep.
The delicious confusion between fantasy and madness finds perfect expression in Rosenfields hypnotic prose and upside-down chapter construction." —
Booklist,
starred review
"At its best in the sensory details that create its vaguely sinister atmosphere."—Kirkus Reviews
"This often eerie novel that toes the line of fantasy is a delight. Readers wont be sure just what it is that has consumed Callie—her own madness, or perhaps, something altogether inhuman—but theyll keep turning pages in hopes of finding out. For fans of E. Lockharts We Were Liars." —School Library Journal
Accolades for Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone:
Edgar Award Finalist for Best Young Adult Mystery
A YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults selection
PW Best New Book for the Week
“Lush, mysterious, utterly compelling.” —Ellen Hopkins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Crank trilogy
“Beccas first-person narration is occasionally interspersed with third-person flashbacks of Amelias last days, and while her end is never in doubt, watching the events that lead up to it will mesmerize readers. . . . Her language is precise and vivid. . . . A perceptive, contrapuntal character study with a light thriller flavor—utterly compelling.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“This layered and exquisitely written story explores the fallout from the murder as well as the dark side of love. Actions have real consequences in Rosenfields novel, and her suffocating small town setting is powerfully and chillingly evoked.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“This is author Kat Rosenfields first novel, and shes to be commended for taking risks with Amelia Anne that arent common in young adult fiction. . . . Amelia Anne Is Dead and Gone blends elegant writing and brutal behavior into a sharp and haunting novel.” —Bookpage, Top Pick
“A dark, moody murder mystery that I predict youre going to love.” —HelloGiggles
“If you love Pretty Little Liars, youll love Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone.” —GURL.com
“This is sophisticated writing replete with lyricism, layers and language.” —Daily Kos
Review
"A compelling read, one that will provoke adventure-lust, a need to experience the strange, the fearful, and the unknown."
—Boston Globe
“A creepy, thrilling tangled web of book. I couldn’t put it down. Anne Heltzel has written two bold, complicated young women as they embark on an adventure through Europe and Asia, unraveling the disappearance of their shared boyfriend, Charlie (presumed dead). Their mystery is everybody’s mystery at some point, whether we like it or not: Who is this person I’m dating and what are they hiding?”
—David Iserson, author of Firecracker
“Buckle in tight. Charlie, Presumed Dead is a mystery wrapped in a puzzle strapped in a roller coaster. Full of compelling characters and exotic settings, this dark and twisty thrill ride kept me up late and kept me guessing.”
—Fiona Paul, author of the Eternal Rose trilogy
“So twisty and devious that I couldn’t stop turning the pages, Charlie Presumed Dead is also a story with heart. I was fascinated by the unfolding of an unlikely friendship between two very different young women who become a force to be reckoned with. I loved it.”
—Marie Rutkoski, author of The Winner’s Curse
"An edgy thriller that keeps the guesses coming until the last word."
—Kirkus
"As the layers of each character's duplicity are carefully revealed, the unearthing of blackmail, revenge, red herrings, and more makes for a thrilling and immersive tale of manipulation as wily as Charlie himself."
—Publishers Weekly
"Travel descriptions and fast-paced writing sprinkled with intrigue and horror spin this story forward at an enjoyable pace. Teen suspense fans will be satisfied with the Gone Girl–esque feeling of the work."
—School Library Journal
Synopsis
Chloe's older sister, Ruby, is the girl everyone looks to and longs for, who can't be captured or caged. When a night with Ruby's friends goes horribly wrong and Chloe discovers the dead body of her classmate London Hayes left floating in the reservoir, Chloe is sent away from town and away from Ruby.
But Ruby will do anything to get her sister back, and when Chloe returns to town two years later, deadly surprises await. As Chloe flirts with the truth that Ruby has hidden deeply away, the fragile line between life and death is redrawn by the complex bonds of sisterhood.
With palpable drama and delicious craft, Nova Ren Suma bursts onto the YA scene with the story that everyone will be talking about.
Synopsis
Seventeen-year-old Lauren is having visions of girls who have gone missing. And all these girls have just one thing in common—they are 17 and gone without a trace. As Lauren struggles to shake these waking nightmares, impossible questions demand urgent answers: Why are the girls speaking to Lauren? How can she help them? And . . . is she next? As Lauren searches for clues, everything begins to unravel, and when a brush with death lands her in the hospital, a shocking truth emerges, changing everything.
Synopsis
In this thrilling tale of suspense and deception, two girls are shocked to discover they've both been dating the same boy when they show up at his funeral. What else don't they know about Charlie Price? As they travel from Paris, to London, to Mumbai to Bangkok, the girls try to figure out Charlie's secrets but soon discover they are harboring secrets of their own. This page-turning psychological mystery will engulf teen fans of Gillian Flynn and Gossip Girl.
Synopsis
In Paris, family and friends gather to mourn the tragic passing of Charlie Price—young, handsome, charming, a world-traveler—who is presumed dead after an explosion. Authorities find only a bloodied jacket, ID’d as Charlie’s. At the funeral, two teens who are perfect strangers, Lena Whitney and Aubrey Boroughs, make another shocking discovery: they have both been dating Charlie, both think Charlie loved them and them alone, and there is a lot they didn’t know about their boyfriend. Over the next week, a mind-bending trip unfolds: first in London—then in Mumbai, Kerala, and Bangkok, the girls go in search of Charlie. Is he still alive? What did their love for him even mean? The truth is out there, but soon it becomes clear that the girls are harboring secrets of their own.
No one knows whom to trust in this thrilling tale of suspense and deception.
Synopsis
There was a shadow in the water.
And when it moved beneath our boat, the sea opened its yawning blue mouth and swallowed my mother whole.
After nine years spent suffocating in the arid expanses of the Midwest, far from the sea where her mother drowned, Callie Morgan and her father are returning to the coast. And miraculously, Callie can finally breathe easily. No more sudden, clawing attacks and weeklong hospital stays.
But something is calling to her from the river behind their house and from the ocean miles away. Just as her life begins to feel like her own, and the potential for romance is blossoming, the intoxicating pull of the dark water seeps into her mind, filling her with doubt and revealing family secrets. Is it madness, or is there a voice, beckoning her to come to sea? To answer the call of the dark waves. To come home.
About the Author
Kat Rosenfield (www.katrosenfield.wordpress.com) is a copywriter and journalist whose debut novel¸
Amelia Anne Is Dead and Gone was an Edgar Award Finalist for Best Young Adult Mystery. Bookpage praised
Amelia Anne for blending elegant writing and brutal behavior into a sharp and haunting novel.”
Kats work has appeared in publications both nationally and internationally including Interiors, Grazia (AU), Wend (cover story), and Girls Life, and can currently be found on websites and in newsletters for organizations across the country. She is currently a regular contributor to pop culture websites such as MTV.coms Hollywood Crush blog, and she is also Auntie SparkNotes on Sparklife.com.