Yesternight

September 15, 2016

In 1925, child psychologist Alice Lind travels to the stormy coast of Oregon to test the learning abilities of the local children. Michael O'Daire picks her up at the station and offers her a place to stay while she's in town. He hopes that Alice can help his seven-year-old daughter, Janie, who believes she lived a past life. As Alice learns more of Janie's story and gathers evidence that the girl might really be experiencing something beyond scientific explanation, she is also drawn into the lives of the child's parents, particularly the dangerously handsome Michael. While there's more than a dash of melodrama in Alice's romantic entanglements, the author does a good job of building suspense about whether Janie's experiences could be real, with a skeptical Scully-like Alice confronted with events beyond what her psychology training can explain. VERDICT Atmospheric and spooky with real gothic flair, the latest from Winters (The Uninvited) introduces a realistically flawed heroine stifled by the conventions of her time.--MM

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2017

This work of historical fiction set in the 1920s centers on Alice Lind, who became a school psychologist to understand her own childhood nightmares and sporadic violent behavior. When Alice is sent to the wild coast of Oregon to help young Janie, a seven-year-old who believes she was once an adult woman who drowned, Alice's own past haunts her, and she becomes convinced that reincarnation is real. There are too many coincidences for her to accept that Janie is just a genius mathematician. A brief dalliance with Janie's divorced father complicates matters-is Alice really a "loose" woman with no morals, like her ex-boyfriends say? Or is she a professional woman ahead of her time? Teens who have read Winters's Morris Award finalist In the Shadow of Blackbirds will find the hints of the paranormal in this novel familiar. At times, Alice seems more like a teenager in modern times than an adult woman in the 1920s, but her investigation into the two incidents of possible reincarnation will fascinate readers. The Oregon, Nebraska, and Kansas rural settings are enthralling, as are the problems Alice encounters as a psychologist in a male-dominated field. VERDICT Perfect for teens wanting mystery, historical fiction, and a touch of the unexplainable.-Sarah Hill, Lake Land College, Mattoon IL

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2016
Winters follows The Uninvited (2015) with another gripping historical novel, this one an exploration of the effects of suppressed trauma and desire. Alice Lind is a school psychologist in 1925, a time when men dominated the academic world and women were expected to be prim and proper. Alice arrives at the dreary coastal town of Gordon Bay, Oregon, to administer IQ tests to a group of rural students. There she is introduced to 7-year-old Janie O'Daire, who tells disturbing stories of her past life as Violet Sunday, a female mathematical genius who died tragically at age 19. Though ordinarily driven by logic, Alice breaks her own rule against becoming too invested in others in order to discover the truth behind Janie's unbelievable claims of reincarnation. As she delves deeper into Janie's story, Alice's scientific way of thinking is shaken, and the terrifying mysteries of her own past rise to confront her. Winters unveils the unspoken complexities of humankind in this well-written tale that is suspenseful in all the right places, and will keep readers guessing at every page.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)