Glimmer

February 13, 2012
The cliché of waking up naked with a stranger is an unpromising start (if an undeniable hook) for Kitanidis’s (Whisper) second YA novel, a magic-tinged horror/romance that recalls elements of Nova Ren Suma’s Imaginary Girls and Karen Healey’s The Shattering. After the initial shock, Elyse and Marshall find some clothes and figure out that they have both lost their memories. Elyse is quickly recognized by the townspeople, and while she can’t accept her name, her parents, the clothes in her closet, or her very body, this self-rejection is overshadowed by the many peculiarities of the bucolic tourist town of Summer Falls, Colo. No one answers questions, the weather is always perfect, and residents’ many memory gaps are treated as a matter of course. What are the bizarre “heatnaps” that befall residents and visitors alike? Who are the hostile ghosts that only Elyse can see? Kitanidis’s elaborate premise requires significant suspension of disbelief, so while there’s no faulting the author’s dialogue or characterizations, skeptical eyebrows will likely remain raised throughout. Ages 14–up. Agent: Jim McCarthy, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management.

March 15, 2012
Two teens from opposite ends of the high-school caste system investigate their own identities and learn a hellishly perfect town's provenance. The two meet when they awake naked in the same bed, unable to remember how they arrived there. They don't even remember their own names; those they discover when locals in Summer Falls recognize them. In Summer Falls, all storybooks end on a high note, and inhabitants spontaneously pass out when they experience anything painful, recovering quickly to forget all details of distress. In their quest to understand who they are and what happened to them, Elyse and Marshall learn that they are endowed with complementary mystical abilities and that both possess dark family histories. Journals Elyse once left behind provide invaluable clues; somehow she once survived adversity long enough before a "heatnap" struck her to know that memory is unreliable. For readers who accept this, other questionable arrangements aren't much more egregious. Discerning readers, though, will notice inconsistencies in the rules of Kitandis' (Whisper, 2010) world. Though Elyse and Marshall alternately narrate, Marshall is less dynamic. No less inquisitive than she, he is more subdued and devoted to their budding romance. The author does not shy away from violence or spare the protagonists from personal connections to the forces of evil and oppression. Touches on it all--sex, ghosts, magic and dystopia--but masters none of it. (Paranormal romance. 12 & up)

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May 1, 2012

Gr 9 Up-Summer Falls appears to be an enchanted small-town Colorado paradise. The weather is always balmy, the buildings are freshly painted, and people are constantly cheerful. But such perfection has a terrible price: restless spirits haunt the area, absorbing residents' negative feelings, but every time the townsfolk are relieved of their bad memories, they get closer and closer to losing their minds. When Elyse and Marshall awaken with no memories, they vow to help each other find out what happened to them. They discover that the town is being controlled by a dark magician who feeds off its life force to remain young. Over the course of trying to figure out who they are, the teens learn that Marshall, a skilled magician, is responsible for their amnesia. As part of their original plan to save the community, he erased Elyse's memory, but then decided not to follow through with everything because he was afraid of losing her, and then erased his own. He needs Elyse to trust him again so they can try once more to free Summer Falls from the dark mage's clutches, but can she forgive his betrayal? Laced with magic and a touch of romance, and enhanced by a truly creepy setting, this is an intriguing mystery. Alternating narration gives insight into Elyse's and Marshall's characters. Give this one to teens who want something other than the typical supernatural romance.-Alissa J. LeMerise, Oxford Public Library, MI

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2012
Grades 9-12 In a seemingly idyllic small town called Summer Falls, two teens wake up naked, entwined in each other's arms, and neither one has any memory of who they are or how they got there. Chapters alternate between Him and Her as they try to piece together their pasts and find their identities. While Summer Falls is always a perfect 72 degrees and nothing bad ever seems to happenat least, not that anyone remembersonly Elyse and Marshall see that something is very wrong. Ghosts of the town's past inhabitants trigger heatnaps to erase bad memories on the spot, while sunny memories reveal a darker side in the form of an ancient power funneled through a charismatic ancestor of Elyse's. Readers will respond to Elyse's and Marshall's character development as they search for themselves, each trying to reconcile the person they're learning about with who they feel they are at the core. The decidedly sci-fi feel of this supernatural suspense story will appeal to a broad range of readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)