Three of my favorite young adult mystery/thriller authors have new books that I am recommending this month. Eyes of the Forest by award winning mystery author April Henry is about the kidnapping of a famous fantasy series author, who must be rescued by his teen continuity advisor. Bad Girls Never Say Die by Jennifer Mathieu (Moxie) is a feminine retelling of The Outsiders involving an accidental murder and "tuff" girls sticking together. You'll Be the Death of Me by Karen McManus (One of Us is Lying) focuses on three estranged friends who skip school to recreate "their best day ever" and end up investigating the murder of a classmate. All three books have clever allusions to famous literary works.
In Eyes of the Forest a fan of an epic fantasy series, Swords and Shadows, kidnaps the author R.M. "Bob" Haldon and chains him to a treadmill desk, ordering him to finish the series finale. It is up to his continuity advisor Bridget Shepherd to save him. Alternating between the perspectives of the George R.R. Martin-esque author, the kidnapper Derek, a socially inept geek at Bridget's high school, Bridget and Ajay, a potential love interest to whom Bridget is reading the series, the narrative moves along at a fast pace. Bob communicates with Bridget via coded messages, hoping she will realize something is wrong. He met Bridget at a book signing, where he was impressed with her encyclopedic knowledge of the Swords and Shadows world. She and her mother read the series obsessively as Mom was dying of cancer, and Bridget has created a database which she uses to fact check his work. Now he is stuck in a cabin writing a schlocky version of the finale which Derek is selling online; meanwhile Bob is surreptitiously writing the real finale. As Bridget shares her suspicions with the police and Ajay, they discount her theory, and she must act alone. This suspenseful thriller with nod to Game of Thrones and Misery, the Kathy Bates film where her character keeps her favorite author captive, effectively weaves fan culture into a spellbinding mystery.
Bad Girls Never Say Die, a feminist reimagining of S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders set in 1964 Houston, introduces "bad girl" Evie, who is a member of an Eastside High gang of economically disadvantaged white and Mexican girls, and Diane, a "good girl" who has been banished from her affluent community of River Oaks because of her involvement with a guy from Evie's neighborhood. When Evie is assaulted by Preston, a drunk boy from River Oaks, Diane inadvertently kills Preston while trying to rescue Evie. Through the shared trauma, Diane and Evie become friends and begin to confide in each other and Evie wonders about the difference between good girls and bad girls. As the police close in, Evie's gang tries to protect Diane, but when her lover is arrested for the murder, Diane insists on saving him. Melodramatic plot twists and engaging dialogue make for a thrilling read, as the story of star-crossed lovers and strong female friendships unfolds. Teachers might want to pair it with Hinton's book for a compare and contrast discussion.
In You'll Be the Death of Me three estranged friends, Cal, Ivy and Mateo, skipped out on a middle school field trip in Boston, having the "best day ever," which sealed their friendship until high school, when they went their separate ways. They reconnect when they come together after a particularly tough day when Ivy loses the student council election to class clown Brian "Boney" Mahoney, Cal gets stood up by his would-be girlfriend, and Mateo is exhausted from working two jobs and dealing with his mother's illness. Deciding to drive into Boston to recreate the day they met, things immediately begin to go wrong. They discover Boney's dead body in Cal's girlfriend's art studio and become involved in a complex murder plot. Ivy is a suspect and insists they investigate to clear her name. The deeper they get into the investigation, the more secrets are revealed until the exciting climax. This clever homage to Ferris Bueller's Day Off is told from the three protagonists' perspectives. While the mystery of Boney's murder is the focal point, the relationship between the three friends adds depth to this thrilling whodunit. This book comes out November 30th.
