The Rattled Bones

May 29, 2017
Rilla Brae lives with her grandmother in a remote fishing village in Maine. Her father, a lobsterman, recently died, and her mother has long been confined to a psychiatric institution following a suicide attempt. As Rilla tries to sustain the family’s lobster business, she meets Sam, a university student studying the mysterious history of nearby Malaga Island, including residents who were buried there in mass graves. When Rilla starts to hallucinate about Malaga’s former inhabitants, she worries that she may have inherited her mother’s mental illness, but she agrees to help Sam with his project. Parker (The Girl Who Fell) languidly explores the depths of Rilla’s loss while giving her a tether in her relationship with Sam. Rilla’s determination to unearth the injustices of Malaga and sustain her father’s business anchor her, even as her hallucinations grow more frightening. Parker’s vivid descriptions of life on Maine’s coast and the lobstering business ground a haunting and atmospheric tale about the sea and reckoning with a community’s past. Ages 14–up. Agent: Melissa Sarver White, Folio Literary Management.

May 15, 2017
A ghost plagues a native Mainer as she struggles to unearth the tragic secrets of the spirit's demise.White teen Rilla Brae mourns the recent loss of her father and continues his work as a lobsterman off the coast of Maine. She's been accepted to college, but with no one to take care of her grandmother--the last remaining member of her family--it's tough to leave home. One day, after setting her pots, she spots a young African-American girl on nearby Malaga Island--she's singing. But the girl vanishes, and Rilla can't tell if she was a hallucination. She wasn't--the girl is a ghost, and she haunts Rilla, scratching messages on her windowsill. Meanwhile, Rilla becomes close to Sam, a white college student conducting research on Malaga. As the ghost intensifies her demands, Rilla and Sam piece together the tragedy that befell her community. Residents of Rilla's town forcibly evicted the islanders, committing some to institutions. As Rilla digs deeper, she learns about more horrors the townspeople committed in the name of racism--and the strong ties this history has to her own family. Based on true events, the story Rilla unearths is more haunting than any ghost (although the widespread use in Maine schools of Gary D. Schmidt's 2003 middle-grade novel about the expulsion of Malaga's residents, Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, makes it hard to believe Rilla wouldn't have been familiar with it already). An evocative backdrop of life as a lobsterman grounds the supernatural elements, and Rilla's steeliness shines--she's the kind of captain readers will eagerly follow. History and mystery meld beautifully in this ghost story with depth. (author's note, sources) (Paranormal suspense. 14-18)

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July 1, 2017

Gr 9 Up-Maine teen Rilla Brae's summer between high school and college is chronicled in this absorbing paranormal journey of self-discovery. The book opens with a flashback as six-year-old Rilla clings to her grandmother while she watches her mother attempt suicide. The narrative then leaps to the present when Rilla's loving home life is shattered by her father's death. Filled with grief and loss, Rilla tries to keep her late father's lobster business afloat as she struggles with the decision to leave her Gram alone and go away to college in the fall. In addition, her boyfriend Reed has become controlling, pressuring Rilla to forgo college and start a life with him. Under intense emotional stress, Rilla begins to fear for her own sanity as she hears a siren's song inviting her into the water and sees the spirit of a girl on nearby Malaga Island. While searching for the mysterious girl, Rilla meets Sam, a student on Malaga undertaking an archaeological internship. Sam is looking for information about a group of the island's inhabitants who were removed from Malaga in a mystery-shrouded scandal long ago. In her search to uncover the truth about the girl, Rilla learns the story of her family and her future path. She briefly speculates that paranormal forces may have caused her mother's mental illness, which is never fully resolved. VERDICT A compelling novel with an empowered heroine, marred by its misguided treatment of mental illness. An additional purchase.-Cindy Wall, Southington Library & Museum, CT

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