Gardenia

December 1, 2016
With only a month to live, high school senior Ivy investigates her best friend's murder.Ivy secretly sees countdown clocks floating above people's heads that reveal the time left before they die. Ivy believes "the numbers don't lie," making her predicted death, within months of her best friend Vanessa's, inevitable. But Ivy can't help but hope she will be able to somehow intervene and save Vanessa before her countdown ends. Instead, in a moment of self-pity and self-sabotage, Ivy kisses Vanessa's boyfriend--and is caught by her own boyfriend, Myers. During the ensuing chaos, the girls separate, leaving a frantic Ivy searching for Vanessa, whose body is later found in the woods. After two months, the investigation has stalled while Ivy is nearly paralyzed by guilt, longing for Myers, and fear about her own death. But when she concludes solving the crime could be her salvation, her knowledge of her own time of death becomes an asset by encouraging bold investigative tactics. Plenty of red herrings lend plausibility to Ivy's occasionally wild suspicions about community members. And when Ivy begins receiving death threats--made credible by her own ticking clock--readers will anticipate and dread the climax. Though Ivy's small town is not at all-white one, her immediate circle seems to be. Ivy's investigation is suspenseful, but the narrative also offers unexpected emotional and philosophical depths that emerge from her musings about the nature of life, death, and personal legacy. (Thriller. 14-18)

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March 1, 2017

Gr 9 Up-Seventeen-year-old Ivy can see numbers over everyone's heads showing how many years, months, days, and hours they have left to live. So it is not a surprise to her when her best friend, Vanessa, dies. She was not, however, expecting her to be murdered. Ivy is now determined to find out who killed Vanessa, all while watching her own countdown and knowing she only has one month and 27 days left to live. This work reads as a suspenseful mystery with a determined amateur sleuth, and the countdown numbers add an interesting layer to the story. The suspense builds steadily as more girls are found dead in the area and Ivy is running out of time. As she visits the elderly and dying in a nursing home, the theme of life and death and living your best life are well conveyed, although the school play about a dying girl's last day puts it a little over-the-top. The twist at the end is shocking but credible due to groundwork laid previously. VERDICT An additional purchase where mysteries are popular; a good read-alike for The Amateurs by Sara Shepard or Nearly Gone by Elle Cosimano.-Allison McLean, Elkhart Public Library, IN

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