For fans of Stranger Things comes a suspenseful YA mystery about a missing kid, a girl who can see ghosts, and a horrifying crime only four outcasts have the power to stop.
What if the only person who could help you find your missing brother was dead?
Nothing is as important to sixteen-year-old Shiloh Oleson as her little brother Max. So when the six-year-old goes missing without a trace, a heartbroken Shiloh refuses to believe nothing can be done and sets out to find him.
When one of Shiloh’s classmates says she knows where Max is, Shiloh hesitates to believe her. Francesca is creepy. She says she can see ghosts, but everyone knows ghosts aren’t real … right?
But Francesca says that Max is going to be murdered.
And a ghost told her where he is.
As the line between the dead and living begins to blur, Shiloh starts to think Francesca might not be as crazy as she believed. One thing is becoming clear. Someone has gruesome plans for Max, and Shiloh must confront her worst nightmares to find him before it’s too late.
Content Warnings: This book contains death, kidnapping, domestic abuse, references to suicide, bullying, and mild adult language.
Genres: Supernatural, Thriller, Young Adult
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MY THOUGHTS
Shiloh Oleson’s whole life revolves around her little brother, Max. He is all she truly cares about, and she would do anything to protect him. Stuck in a household with an abusive father and a mother who does not step up to protect her children, Shiloh takes sole responsibility for Max and for keeping him safe and happy.
However, after agreeing to take on an extra shift at work, Shiloh has to ask her mother to pick Max up from tee-ball and, when she phones to make sure he was picked up, she learns that her father was going to pick Max up instead, and he was over forty-five minutes late. Shiloh returns from her shift ready to play dinosaurs with Max, but walks into the sort of nightmare she has been trying to protect Max from all this time – he was not at tee-ball when his father arrived to pick him up, and no one knows exactly where he is.
Doing her best to help in the efforts to find Max, while trying to avoid letting her father know, as he has specifically told her not to do anything other than joining the search parties, Shiloh finds herself delving deeper into the case than any of the police force seem to be doing. There is another missing child, Poppy, who disappeared a month previously, and Shiloh is convinced that both cases must be connected somehow.
Francesca Russo is the biggest outcast in the town. She has no friend to call her own, at least none that are alive. When she was a child, a man’s ghost asked her to burn his body at his funeral, and since doing so, Francesca has been mocked, ridiculed, and become the object of bullying and fear. Yet, when she is in the graveyard, talking to those who do not shun her, or think she’s crazy, she feels less alone. But something is threatening the ghosts she calls friends, a man in a green coat can also see them, and he left a bruise on one of the children’s arms. No human should be able to touch a ghost. Determined to protect those she cares for, but also curious about this other person, the only other person she has ever known, who can also see the ghosts, Francesca starts investigating.
This book is the kind that pulls you in and refuses to let you go, even after the final page has been turned. It will make you physically edge closer to the edge of your seat, and hold your breath in anticipation as you read the words as quickly as possible. Shiloh is a character that you cannot help but root for, and as you learn about her home life and the terrible things she has experienced, and experiences on a regular basis, you feel a deep ache in your heart for her as well. In addition to this, we also have Francesca’s point of view, and you quickly fall in love with her character as well, and, although her situation is different from Shiloh’s, she is no less a victim of other people’s actions and bullying.
It is no surprise that Francesca and Shiloh eventually band together to try and figure out what is going on, and to find Max, but they are not the only members of this group. Miles, Shiloh’s boyfriend, and his best friend Jonah join them as they desperately search for the truth. I had mixed feelings about Miles throughout the entire book. On one hand, he is a wonderful guy, incredibly loving and kind, and ready to do almost anything for Shiloh, even though they haven’t been going out for very long. On the other hand, he keeps pushing her to open up, to tell him things she is not ready to tell him, and, at times, treats her incredibly coldly, especially considering her brother is missing and it is already a very difficult time for her. Jonah, despite being what could be considered the ‘bad boy’, the juvenile delinquent who has girls swooning over him and often has a cigarette in his hand, treats Shiloh in such a way that I found myself rooting for them to end up together. At first, they despise each other, but Jonah becomes a rock that Shiloh can count on, and he is up for anything, whether it be following a lead that could reveal where Max is, or simply listening to her and understanding.
In the search for Max, and as we learn more about the ghosts through Francesca, this novel has created an effect where normally bad news ignites a spark of hope, and good news can make your stomach fall. When you factor the supernatural into any book, the tables are turned with new implications, and this book has achieved that perfectly. The reader learns what the four main characters know, and yet, none of it will be believed by the authorities, so they are on their own in finding Max before it is too late.
This book, to my absolute horror, ends on a cliffhanger. The kind of cliffhanger that makes you sit back, staring at the last words, and slowly coming to the realisation that book 2 is not out yet, and won’t be for several months at least. If you want a book to pull you in, and spit you back out, shocked, intrigued, and desperate for more, this book is one that you cannot overlook.
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Ooh those cliffhangers are so bittersweet! I love being shocked with a great cliffhanger ending but I hate the waiting lol! Great review! :)
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