Teeth in the Mist

April 15, 2019
Multiple generations seek truth and find horror in this Faust-inspired gothic tale. On a remote mountain in North Wales, two main storylines follow Zoey in the present day and Roan in 1851. After Roan's father dies, she discovers that his very recent will grants custody of her to a Dr. Maudley, and she's packed away to live with him in Mill House. Upon arrival, she learns she's not Dr. Maudley's only ward. She meets fiery Emma and Seamus, who uses a wheelchair--Irish siblings--and starts to unpack the lies covering up the house's secrets and her own. In the contemporary storyline, Zoey's drawn to the long-abandoned Mill House--her father, researching his family, made a pilgrimage there only to return, sans memory, as a shell of himself. Zoey, who shares strange gifts with her father, hopes she can find answers for him. But strange experiences she has leave her feeling like she isn't alone; she only starts finding answers after it's too late. The complicated stories are organized through design and format choices that also enhance narrative tension and skillfully manipulate the pacing. Even the romances, straight and lesbian, have creepy elements. Delightfully disturbing imagery culminates in a quick finale. Most characters default to white--there's brief mention of Zoey having an aunt Sanjeet and, in diary entries from the 1580s, mention of a woman of African descent. An eerie, atmospheric, satanic, spooky story. (Horror. 14-adult)

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May 13, 2019
Kurtagich (And the Trees Crept In) fuses horror and fantasy in this retelling of the Faust legend that follows two story lines. After her father’s death in 1851, 16-year-old Roan Evelyn Eddington moves to a remote mountaintop mansion in Wales to live with her new guardian, Dr. Maudley; his adopted son, Rapley; and fellow wards Seamus and Emma. Rumor has it that Mill House is haunted by its architect’s wife, whom locals burned as a witch after many laborers and her own children disappeared. But Roan soon discovers that there is something much darker and more powerful that intends to claim not just their lives but also their souls. Nearly 170 years later, Zoey Root, 16, goes looking for answers in Mill House’s ruins after her father journeys there to research his roots and returns “insane, or something like it.” The girls’ stories unfold in tandem, tension mounting as each uncovers the origins of her magical abilities and the terrible truth about Mill House. Despite a murky central mythology, two shoehorned romances (one straight, one gay), and an abrupt conclusion, Kurtagich delivers a creepy, atmospheric tale of subjugation, female self-empowerment, and redemption. Ages 14–up. Agents: Sarah Davies and Polly Nolan, Greenhouse Literary.

May 1, 2019
Grades 9-12 A mysterious, foreboding house in Wales connects two teenage girls across time. In 1851, orphaned Roan arrives at the Mill House alongside Irish Emma and her brother, Seamus. All three have been taken in by the house's owner, Dr. Maudley, but Roan has her suspicions. There is something about the house that unsettles her, and she hears a strange voice in her head that she tries to ignore. Meanwhile, in the present day, Zoey has lost her father. He's not dead, but he was obsessed with the allegedly haunted ruins of the Mill House. Now his mind is gone, and Zoey is determined to find out what happened to him?even if it means following in his footsteps too closely. Roan's story, which draws from Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, reads like a classic gothic horror story, while Zoey's is all found footage, an amalgamation of Blair Witch Project-esque film transcripts, text messages, and diary entries. Grotesque elements and sometimes-esoteric prose make this primarily a read for ardent genre fans, but how those genre fans will consume it.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)