Hysteria

February 18, 2013
As in Miranda's debut, Fracture, this eerie tale centers on a heroine broken and transformed by a deeply traumatic experience. The police called it "justifiable homicide," but Mallory Murphy isn't certain: she can't remember exactly what happened the night she killed her boyfriend, Brian. Mallory is ostracized by Brian's friends, her sleep is haunted by a terrifying presence, and Brian's grieving mother has turned into a deranged stalker. The teenager attempts to make a fresh start at a New Hampshire boarding school, but Monroe Prep turns out to contain both friends and enemies, and it's not always clear where Mallory's paranoid distrust ends and real danger begins. Worse, Mallory hasn't escaped the specter in her dreams, and her bloody history is an open secret, making her the prime suspect when a student is cruelly murdered. Miranda's enveloping prose style and the story's sinuous plot result in a thriller that questions the reliability of memory, the insidiousness of guilt, and what it truly means to be haunted. Ages 12âup. Agent: Sarah Davies, Greenhouse Literary.

January 1, 2013
An atmospheric thriller, ripe with tension, overcomes a superfluous subplot. Her murder of her boyfriend Brian has been ruled an act of self-defense, but Mallory is still trapped by what happened that night. To help her get past the murder, her parents send her to Monroe Prep, the boarding school her father attended. But Mallory can't escape the feeling that Brian's mother has followed her or that Brian's spirit is everywhere. Distracting from this gripping suspense is the unnecessary drama at Monroe, where Mallory acts on her feelings for Reid, the son of her father's best friend, and fights off the attentions of Jason, the dean of students' son. Another violent, bloody death--in her own dorm room--acts as the catalyst for Mallory to finally discover what happened that night with Brian as well as this more recent event--although readers will find this second death far less interesting. The storyline at Monroe dilutes the power of Mallory's recovery and minimizes Mallory's relationship with her best friend Colleen, a disappointingly unexplored element. Still, the primary thriller plot and readers' investment in Mallory will keep the pages turning. (Thriller. 14 & up)

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June 1, 2013

Gr 9 Up-In this suspenseful page turner, readers quickly discover that 16-year-old Mallory killed her boyfriend, Brian, with a knife. The details of what exactly happened that night-and why-prove more elusive, trickling out bit by breathless bit over the course of the story. Though Mallory isn't charged with murder, her parents send her away to a rural boarding school to escape the gossip as well as Brian's unstable, grief-stricken mother, who won't leave Mallory's family alone. But Mallory can't escape her disturbing dreams or the sense that Brian is haunting her. It's unclear whether the strange events have a supernatural cause, are a stalker's doing, or are all in Mallory's mind as she struggles to cope with her guilt and fear. At Monroe, her new school, she finds that she doesn't fit in. She might be falling for Reid, the son of an old family friend, but the romance seems doomed from the start. Another shocking event, and a visit from her parents and best friend, bring all of the secrets and lies out into the open. The protagonist is not always a sympathetic character; some of her actions leave room for doubt about whether she actually did commit murder. This is a satisfying novel, if sometimes overly melodramatic. Mystery and suspense fans will be hooked from the moment Mallory describes the puddle of blood on her kitchen floor.-Miranda Doyle, Lake Oswego School District, OR

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