All These Beautiful Strangers

February 1, 2018

Optioned for television by Bruna Papandrea's Made Up Stories (e.g., Big Little Lies), this white knuckler from a Glimmer Train and AWP Intro Award finalist features teenage Charlie, still haunted by her mother's disappearance when she was seven. Now a secret society at her elite New England school wants her to join their fun, but doing so entails a creepy, semester-long scavenger hunt that could wreck her life. YA crossover potential.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2018

For 10 years, Charlotte "Charlie" Calloway has questioned what happened to her mother, Grace. Some say she was killed by Charlie's father, Alistair, while evidence pointed to Grace leaving him. But Charlie never really believed her mother would leave her and her younger sister, Seraphina, behind. As Charlie enters her junior year at a New England boarding school, she is invited to join the mysterious, elite group at school called the A's. She and her cousin, Leo, among others, are asked to complete morally questionable or dangerous tasks to prove their loyalty. All the while, flashbacks narrated by Alistair and Grace reveal their love story and the flaws in their marriage. Charlie's voice shines as she uncovers more and more about her own family history, with the support of family friend Greyson. The suspense is well executed. As Charlie draws closer to the truth of what happened to her mother, the reader is compelled to see how the events of the past will affect Charlie's truth today. The writing is descriptive without turning flowery or overly literary. Most of the major characters are well-rounded; only some supporting ones (like Seraphina) seem a bit flat. VERDICT Fans of thrillers will have difficulty putting down this excellently plotted, gripping novel.-Kelly Jo Lasher, Middle Township High School, Cape May Court House, NJ

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 28, 2018
Did Grace Fairchild simply walk away from her Cinderella life as the wife of a blueblood New York real estate billionaire—as suggested by bank surveillance footage showing her cleaning out the couple’s safe deposit boxes days before she disappeared—or did something more sinister happen? A decade later, the question haunts Grace’s 17-year-old daughter, Charlie, the appealingly acerbic narrator of Klehfoth’s engrossing if flawed debut. Now a junior at Knollwood Augustus Prep, the New Hampshire boarding school her father attended, whip-smart Charlie is beginning the pledging process for an ultra-exclusive secret society, the A’s. As the high-stakes initiation game tests Charlie’s loyalties and values, she discovers some explosive family history—challenging almost everything she has grown up believing about her parents. Unfortunately, the author’s plotting fails to measure up to her ingenious amateur sleuth, relying throughout on colossal coincidences and ending with a denouement that’s surprising primarily for its implausibility. Still, Klehfoth’s ability to draw in the reader shows that she’s an author to watch. Agent: Suzanne Gluck, WME.

June 1, 2018
A young girl strives to learn from the dead and find the truth about her family's darkest secrets.This compelling mystery switches among three perspectives--those of Charlie Calloway, a young woman who attends an elite New England boarding school; Charlie's mother, Grace, who disappeared from their lake house when Charlie was 7; and Charlie's father, Alistair, a billionaire real estate mogul who many people believe killed Grace--and two time periods, 1996-'97 and 2017. Charlie has never known what happened to her mother, but she is determined to find out. When, at age 17, she's selected for the most exclusive secret club on her school's campus--the A's--and, as an initiate, must perform a series of challenging and dangerous tasks, Charlie realizes that the club has something to do with her mother's disappearance. As the layers are unpeeled, revealing the truth, so, too, are the protective layers Charlie had erected as a defense against love. Through most of the story, the thrill is true; but the ending swings from hackneyed--"Had he jumped of his own volition, or was he forced to his watery grave below?"--to unnecessarily melodramatic. The book is saved, however, by the candid and genuine relationships among the young characters. Charlie, an appealing protagonist, has a smart and gamine spirit; her exchanges with her cousin and fellow student, Leo, and with her friend and detective partner, Greyson, are especially jocular and sweet.The story of a long-game revenge played out between generations.

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June 1, 2018
Seventeen-year-old Charlie Calloway seems to have it all: a wealthy family, a spot in prestigious Knollwood Prep, where she is admired by one of the most popular guys in school, and now the chance at an exclusive secret society when the A's send her an invitation to join their initiation process. The only thing missing from Charlie's life is her mother, Grace, who mysteriously disappeared 10 years before. Although it appears that Grace abandoned her family, absconding with a small fortune from her husband's bank account, a part of Charlie always wonders: did her mom really run away, or was it something (or someone) else that caused her disappearance? This debut mystery gives readers a fun glimpse into the scandalous world of high-society boarding school and is reminiscent of Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep (2005). The plot moves back and forth between time periods and points of view, as Charlie's current experiences begin to unearth more about her mother's disappearance. Soon Charlie must choose between the expectations of her highbrow family and classmates and the truth.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)