Seventeen-year-old Eliza Loft’s high-school experience in Whitehall—a “Podunk” town in the Adirondack Mountain region of New York—isn’t exactly idyllic. After her mother died of cancer when Eliza was 12 years old, the teen rebelled, and on a drunken night with her two best friends up in the woods, she did some regrettable things. In an inebriated haze, she also witnessed the brutal murder of an older girl from her school district. After vowing with her friends to never share the events of that night with anyone, four years pass, and Eliza becomes estranged from the two other girls, who become popular while she ends up a loner. When each of the three girls finds a photo of the dead girl with a message (“I know what you did”) in their lockers, panic ensues—no one else could possibly know. When one of Eliza’s (now former) best friends turns up dead shortly thereafter, Eliza not only becomes a suspect but also the killer’s next potential target. With her new friend Simon—a hardcore bigfoot enthusiast—accompanying her, she attempts to discover who, or what, is behind the murders. Carlisle’s story is a real page-turner. While the bigfoot element is certainly intriguing, it’s the author’s insightful depiction of the teenage experience—battling self-doubt, dealing with bullying and crushes, finding one’s place in the world—that makes Eliza’s story so emotionally resonant and compelling. Her grief over her mother’s death is particularly powerful: “But death doesn’t care about what you need. It comes without warning, takes everything from you until all you’re left with are a bunch of broken pieces and no picture to guide you on how to fit them back together.”
English (US) ·