Where Wicked Starts

September 15, 2014
Two stepsisters are preoccupied by weird characters who keep popping up around their Florida town. The idea of turning an old house into a bed-and-breakfast might appeal to their newly married parents, but for teenagers Nick and Luna, painting and cleaning are dull jobs they're eager to escape. Compelling distraction comes in the form of two people they spot around the town and dub Mr. Creep and Bony, who fail to match up with any of the usual relationship templates: Are they father/daughter? Boyfriend/girlfriend? Combining Luna's photography skills and Nick's intuitiveness, they manage to put together a case against Mr. Creep that no one will listen to until Luna's renegade father makes an extended visit. Henley and Stuckey-French, both veteran novelists, steer the plot slowly despite the mystery-novel framework. The majority of their skill is spent on lilting prose, such as, "Those girls are a misery train bearing down on me." It is lovely, but it makes the girls, who take turns narrating the novel, seem like adults playacting as teenagers. Naive 14-year-old Nick does make a good foil for jaded 16-year-old Luna, who tells readers "I'd already had sex, and by that I mean full-fledged fucking, by the time I was her age" and describes her revulsion at giving a boy a blow job. More effective as an exploration of the odd moments of transition as a blended family struggles to cohere than as a mystery. (Fiction. 14-18)

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