Cryer's Cross

January 3, 2011
In this ghost story, McCann (the Wake trilogy) delivers an atmospheric but unsatisfying tale of smalltown horror. Kendall Fletcher, a soccer player with obsessive-compulsive disorder who dreams of performing on Broadway, is determined to escape her tiny hometown of Cryer's Cross, Mont., by getting into Juilliard. When her best friend, Nico, is the second student to vanish mysteriously in
recent months, it throws Kendall's ordered life into disarray. Soon, enigmatic daydreams and clues lead her to believe that Nico is the latest victim of a supernatural mystery, and she may be the next target. A handsome but surly newcomer, Jacián, may be the key to surviving whatever is preying on the teens of
Cryer's Cross. While the remote, rural setting is laden with potential (the one-room high school has only 24 students) and the constant whirring of Kendall's OCD-afflicted mind adds an interesting dimension, the elements never completely gel. McMann handles the buildup of the story's tension well, but her resolution feels quick and easy, and even bloody final revelations can't mitigate a premise that's far more silly than spooky. Ages 14–up.

November 1, 2011

Gr 7 Up-There's a secret in the small Montana community of Cryer's Cross that is killing teens. Tiffany disappears first and after hunting everywhere for her, the community regroups and moves on. Kendall is stunned when her best friend, Nico, goes missing without a trace at the beginning of the next school year. After Nico's disappearance, Kendall recalls that he grew more and more distant in the days before he vanished. Kendall discovers that Nico and Tiffany both sat at the same desk before they disappeared, and now she begins to hear voices coming from that desk. Kendall suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and begins to think that the condition is finally making her go crazy. But the lure of the voices is too strong and Kendall follows them until she uncovers a lot more than she bargained for. Latino newcomers to town are suspected in the disappearances in this close knit community and Kendall doesn't know whom to trust. Julia Whelan reads Lisa McMann's thriller (Simon Pulse, 2011) that combines mystery, ghosts, and romance in a straightforward yet easygoing manner that nicely offsets the building tension as the mystery unfolds. For fans of the supernatural and vampire stories.-Joan Kindig, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA

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