Tighter

March 21, 2011
Griffin (The Julian Game) offers a modernized version of Henry James's The Turn of the Screw that stars Jamie, a young au pair who is fast becoming a prescription drug addict. Shortly after arriving at Little Bly Island to care for 11-year-old Isa (who is still deeply disturbed by the death of her former au pair, Jessie), Jamie is surprised by the return of Isa's older brother, Milo, who "got tossed" from summer camp. Living in a household ruled by a cantankerous housekeeper and frequently disrupted by Milo's antics, Jamie turns to stolen pills. She becomes less and less sure of what is real, coming to believe that the ghosts of Jessie and the au pair's boyfriend are haunting her ("The unrest of their death was defiant, it beckoned from the corners"). Sure to please fans of gothic romance, Griffin's tale adds new psychological dimensions to James's classic novella as it delves into Jamie's pill-popping, her family's history of mental illness, and her unrequited love for a teacher who brushed her off. Eerily intriguing from first page to last. Ages 12âup.

Starred review from April 15, 2011

Drug addiction and tainted love mess with the mind of a befuddled au pair in this creepy update of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw.

Seventeen-year-old Jamie is secretly treating a broken heart with her parents' prescriptions when she leaves for a dream babysitting job in a swanky summer community off of Providence, R.I. After a teacher spurns her schoolgirl crush, Jamie sinks into a funk that she hopes will be lifted by focusing on sweet 11-year-old Isa. But once in place, Jamie is tormented by gossip of last summer's nanny, a reckless girl named Jessie, and her boyfriend, Peter, who died in a plane crash. Through her pill-induced haze, Jamie begins seeing the pair everywhere and hears Peter's vengeful voice coming out of Isa's brother Milo's mouth. Then a confrontation with some of the local rich kids sends Jamie spinning off to the same cliff where she first saw the dead lovers take flight. Who or what is driving her to follow their fatal path? Griffin interweaves subtle commentary about social class, drug abuse and mental illness into this marvelous homage while winding the suspense knob all the way to 11. Whether or not the ghosts are real, Jamie's alienation and addiction are, and readers will feel her growing claustrophobia at each turn of the page.

A contemporary reboot that does the original proud. (Fiction. 12 & up)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

June 1, 2011

Gr 9 Up-Following the heartbreaking revelation that her secret relationship with a teacher is over, Jamie allows her mother to convince her to become an au pair for the summer as an emotional distraction. Unable to cope normally, the teen pops prescription pills pilfered from her family members indiscriminately throughout her time on Little Bly. Already haunted by the spirits of two relatives who took their own lives, Jamie falls prey to the restless spirits of her charge's previous au pair and her boyfriend who died the previous summer. As the teen becomes more and more disoriented, unsure of what's real and what's in her head, her new friends become concerned for her mental health. Full of mystery, spectral encounters, and disorienting lapses in time, this is a ghost story that melds seamlessly with one of a mental breakdown. A stunning and unexpected revelation brings Jamie's story to a startling conclusion. An engaging thriller with wide appeal.-Jessica Miller, New Britain Public Library, CT

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2011
Grades 8-12 In this intriguing retelling of Henry James classic novella The Turn of the Screw, Griffin sets the stage for a psychological mystery when 17-year-old Jamie arrives on the New England island of Little Bly, where she has been hired to be the nanny to 11-year-old Isa and hopes to escape a traumatic school year. In Skylark, a large, oceanfront mansion, Jamie begins to see people whom others cannot, and she gradually realizes that they are the prior years nanny and her boyfriend, who were killed in a plane crash. In true Jamesian fashion, Griffin scatters tidbits of information that simultaneously tantalize and frustrate, seemingly providing clues that eventually lead only to more questions. Was Jamies relationship with her teacher a romantic one? Can Isa see the ghosts that Jamie sees? What does Connie the housekeeper know? Its up to readers to decide, and as they puzzle through spine-tingling clues, they may come to the conclusion that the difference between reality and the imagination is in the minds eye.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)