A Good Idea

December 12, 2016
The summer after her senior year of high school in New York City, Finley returns to her Maine hometown certain that the drowning death of her best friend, Betty, was murder. As Fin searches for the truth, she must untangle Betty’s lies; confront the young man, Calder, who confessed to but wasn’t convicted of the killing; and face her own demons and deceptions. Bisexual Finley is a strong and troubled heroine, exploring her own identity through a new relationship with a girl named Serena, their shared link to Betty, and an intense and disastrous pull to longtime friend and lover, Owen, who has started dealing drugs to keep his family afloat. Against this dramatic backdrop, Fin must reconcile how far she’s willing to go to protect the people she loves with the small-town politics that allow Calder and his father, the mayor, to do the same. The result is a powerful look at moral gray areas and the fluidity of forgiveness. Moracho’s (Althea & Oliver) characters are realistically and heartbreakingly flawed, and her fast-paced, windy narrative presents new wrinkles at every turn. Ages 14–up. Agent: Brianne Johnson, Writers House.

November 1, 2016
A young woman returns for the summer from her mother's in New York City to her dad's house in a small Maine town, intent on uncovering what actually happened to her best friend, who is only officially recognized by the police as missing even though her ex-boyfriend confessed to--but then recanted--having killed her. Finley is set to begin at NYU in the fall, but the loss of her troubled friend Betty drives her back to insular Williston to spend one final summer there in the late 1990s. An incredibly tangled web immediately presents itself, and she meets Serena, whom Betty met when her parents sent her to a religious summer camp and to whom Finley develops an intense attraction. Together, they do all they can to force the truth to come to light. Lushly evocative writing sets an atmospherically dark and foreboding tone from the start, and secrets are harbored by nearly every character, all of whom appear to be white. Finley is a distant narrator, tough and smart, and though she spends a fair amount of time downing pills, drinking, and having sex with both the town drug dealer, Owen, and Serena, her grief and anger over Betty are believable motivating forces that keep her asking questions and seeking revenge. A discomfiting, gripping mystery with plenty of sharp edges. (Fiction. 14 & up)

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February 1, 2017

Gr 9 Up-When her parents split right before she started high school, Fin moved with her mom from the coastal Maine town of Williston to New York City. Now that she's graduated, she'll spend the summer, as she does every year, back in small-town Maine with her dad. This summer promises to be nothing like the others, however. Betty, Fin's best friend since childhood, disappeared the previous fall, and Betty's ex-boyfriend, Calder, confessed to drowning her but was let loose on a technicality. Soon after arriving in Maine, Fin discovers that everyone acts as if Betty never existed. Everyone, that is, except Serena, a teen who is trying to assuage her pain with pills and alcohol. With Serena, Fin finds both a sexual relationship and a partner to avenge Betty's erasure. Together with Owen, an older local guy, they try to uncover what happened-and make Calder pay for it. While Moracho's narrative offers elements of a murder mystery and a psychological thriller, it is not an edge-of-the-seat read. The novel's real strength lies less in a suspenseful plot than in its subtle look into the dark places that minds, particularly those of teenagers on the brink of adulthood, can go and the different factors that can drive them there.

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2016
Grades 9-12 Calder Miller confessed to the murder of Betty Flynn. Yet, as a minor without a present lawyerand the son of Williston's manipulative mayorhe walked free. But Finley Blake, Betty's best friend, is ready to settle the score. Slitting tires, sparking fires, and doggedly interrogating classmates and locals alike, Finley demands nothing short of the truth: why did Calder do it? While her perilous ploys successfully bring Betty, a mercurial force with a long tarnished reputation, to the forefront of Williston's clouded memory, they also unearth a series of startling secrets. Finley soon finds herselfand those she cares most abouthaunted not only by danger but also boundless uncertainty. Finley's brooding first-person narrative, precocious and often deluged with drug use, doesn't always accommodate deep secondary-character development. Still, Moracho's setting, a sleepy coastal town swathed in superstition and sea, shines. Edgy, atmospheric, and sometimes steamy, this is a thoughtful portrait of grief and an engaging examination of the risks we take for the ones we love. Ideal for mystery enthusiasts and noir newcomers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)