Some Sad and Scary New Books

I was browsing the new Young Adult new fiction display alcove, and was drawn to some titles that are either sad or scary or both. Maybe the cool autumn air is putting me in a Halloween mood! Here are some of the books I discovered.

Beneath a Meth Moon by Jacqueline Woodson
This subtitle of this book is An Elegy.  Do you know what an “elegy” is? It’s a song or a poem that expresses sorrow, especially sorrow for someone who has died. Fifteen-year-old Laurel, grieving over the death of her mother and her grandmother and the loss of their family home, moves to Galilee. She makes a new friend, becomes a cheerleader, and everything is going pretty well, ….and then she meets T-Boom, a star basketball player. T-Boom introduces her to meth (which they call “moon”) and her life goes downhill so fast my heart nearly stopped. 

The Night She Disappeared by April Henry
Gabie delivers pizza part-time after school in her Mini Cooper.  One night, another pizza delivery girl, Kayla, does not return from a delivery. Is she kidnapped?  Murdered? When Gabie learns that the man who ordered the pizza asked that it be delivered by the girl in the Mini Cooper, she worries that she was the actual target. Along with co-worker Drew, Gabie tries to find Kayla and discover who kidnapped her. The chapters shift to different kids’ viewpoints and even to that of the perpetrator. Interspersed are police reports, interviews, and 911 call transcripts, which make the action in the book seem really real.

The Silence of Murder by Dandi Daley Mackall
When the Panthers basketball coach is murdered, eighteen-year-old Jeremy Long, a boy with autism who has not spoken one word for nine years, is accused of the murder. Jeremy’s sister, Hope, lives up to her name: she believes her brother and tries to prove his innocence. Can she?

Stop in for more suggestions...Connie