Frozen Beauty

January 15, 2020
Grief and confusion surround two young women whose sister has just died under mysterious circumstances in this suspenseful novel by Hillyer (Winter Glass, 2018, etc.). When Kit is found in the woods with a head injury, dead of hypothermia, her younger sisters, Tessa and Lilly, struggle to comprehend what's happened. Adding to their grief is the fact that their adored neighbor Boyd, who has long been like a protective brother to them, is in jail, accused of her murder. Alternating narration between the past and present, in poems and diary entries and from the perspectives of all three sisters plus Boyd and a troubled newcomer named Patrick, this mystery winds its way through their backstories, revealing that Kit had been behaving strangely in the months leading up to her death. The imaginative, vividly described passages can at times feel a bit florid, but they effectively establish an undercurrent of almost poetic, fairy-tale flavored imagery. A late twist to the story handily wraps up the plot, and readers with a taste for romance will thrill to Lilly's attraction to archetypical bad boy Patrick. Whiteness is situated as the norm, and all main characters are white; one of Lilly's best friends is gay. A compelling, lyrical twist and turn through sisterhood and secrecy. (Mystery. 14-18)

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February 1, 2020

Gr 9 Up-When one of three sisters is found dead, the girls' secrets begin to unravel. Kit Malloy, the oldest of the siblings, was the always the smartest and most practical of the pretty young women, but the night of her death she was spotted sneaking out with Boyd, the boy living next door. Later, her half-clothed body, blue with hypothermia, was discovered in the back of Boyd's truck, and her sister Lilly's eyewitness account lands Boyd in jail, accused of murder. Lilly, the youngest, has secrets of her own, including a crush on bad-boy newcomer Patrick, while Tessa, the middle sister, has been hiding feelings for Boyd for years. Tessa was born with chimerism, a condition where she shares some of Kit's DNA from their mother's womb, and therefore sometimes senses the same things that Kit has sensed. These ghostly feelings haunt Tessa's dreams, leaving her confused, and she begins to doubt Boyd's guilt. Struggling for closure, she's determined to find out exactly what happened that night. Through Lilly's diary entries and Tessa's hunt for the truth, the secrets are unlocked, piece by piece. Hillyer uses multiple perspectives from past and present, along with Kit's poems, to tell the story of what happened to the girl. Not simply a cautionary tale, the novel explores the beauty of discovery and "firsts," and exposes the possible consequences of silencing. VERDICT On par with popular adult suspense novels, Hillyer's well-written work is a taut mystery with enough twists to keep the reader on edge until the end. A recommended purchase for YA mystery collections.-Sandi Jones, Wynne High School, Wynne, AR

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February 3, 2020
Sisters Kit, 17; Tessa, 16; and Lilly, 15, and the brotherly boy next door, 16-year-old Boyd, have been close since childhood, but crushes and loyalties begin to shift once they enter their teens. When Kit is found dead in the woods one freezing winter night, Lilly, convinced she saw Kit with Boyd that evening, accuses him, landing him in jail. But Tessa—whom Boyd kissed two days before Kit’s death—has strong doubts, and she sets out to find the killer, hoping that the DNA she shares with her older sister, which “slimed off on her... in her mother’s womb,” a trait known as chimerism, will help allow her to relive the experiences leading to Kit’s death. Hillyer (Winter Glass) tells the story from several perspectives—the sisters’ (including Kit’s, via poems she wrote while living), Boyd’s, and that of high school sophomore Patrick Donovan, new in town and of questionable character—carefully structuring this compelling murder mystery into “Before” and “Now” chapters, subtly weaving essential clues into the narrative, and imperceptibly casting suspicion on several characters. Her adept craftsmanship, however, is shattered by a deus-ex-machina ending that results in an awkward resolution to an otherwise skillfully built and evocatively written tale of suspense. Ages 13–up. Agent: Stephen Barbara, InkWell Management.