When Lillian was alive, Hannah was always in her shadow. Which was sometimes okay - at the top of the social heap, Lillian protected Hannah from the mean girl games Angelie and the other girls in their group play. But it also meant that Hannah never really was able to be her own person. Even now, Hannah is the best friend who can't get over Lillian's death - which might be easier if Lillian wasn't always constantly hanging around, still telling Hannah what to think, what to do, and who she shouldn't be kissing, even though she's a ghost now. And who Hannah shouldn't be kissing is Finny Boone. Finny Boone, who is obviously a juvenile delinquent, but who is so deeply kind to Hannah that she can't just dismiss him like everyone else does.
Hannah works at Quality Photo, who prints all the police department photos, so when Officers Boles and McGarahan bring the crime scene negatives in from the first murder victim, Hannah can't help but look - especially with Lillian perched on the counter, egging her on. What she sees is horrifying. Thirteen-year-old Cecily Miles was killed in the park, her body laid out in the middle of a scatter of cheap kids' toys, an elaborate, handmade paper valentine near one of her hands. The weird thing is, the valentine reminds Hannah of the valentine found near the scene of one of her other friends who was found dead behind the bowling alley a year ago, a mugging gone bad - or so the police thought. A valentine she shouldn't know about, but that's what happens when you can hear the ghosts of dead girls.
When a second girl is murdered in the park, another valentine with the body, Hannah decides she needs to find the killer and end the madness. With Lillian's help, Hannah starts to put together the evidence, but the truth is sometimes more horrifying than anything you can imagine.
Deeply atmospheric, moody and macabre, Brenna Yovanoff slowly builds simmering tension and suspense like heat haze on a late August afternoon. With the sun beating down on the streets of Hannah's small town and shimmering off the pages, this horror story, sleuthing murder mystery, and steamy romance will warm you up and make you go cold all over. I loved Hannah - her awesome DIY thrift store fashion, how much she loves her little sister Ariel, and how she manages to step outside Lillian's shadow and become the kind of girl who solves murders, kisses boys who are kind in ways no one else sees, and stands up for the people she loves. If you loved the Jack the Ripper ghost story The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson or Brenna's first novel, the foggy, creepy The Replacement, you've got to check out her newest book!
Megan
(now reading The Madman's Daughter, a retelling of The Island of Dr. Moreau - I can't wait to see what kind of creepy lies between those pages!)
P.S. Fun fact - Brenna Yovanoff is one of blog favorite author Maggie Stiefvater's critique partners - check out her short stories in the recently published The Curiosities, along with Maggie's work and the third Merry Sister of Fate, Blood Magic author Tessa Gratton!
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