Review by Booklist Review
Ten years ago, Sid's father murdered five teenage girls; now, Sid can't escape the judgmental eyes of everyone in town. Not only are they managing a budding relationship with new girl Mavis while keeping their past a secret, but somebody new is killing girls, and on the same dates that the previous victims died. Sid knows their dad is in prison, but the similarities are too strong to ignore. Nobody wants to talk to Sid except the ghosts of the victims, who plant seeds of guilt in their mind. Sid knows these ghosts aren't real, but they can see them, smell them, and feel them. As girls keep going missing, Sid teams up with Mavis and the daughter of the sheriff to try to get to the bottom of the murders--after all, any one of them could be next. This dark murder mystery, told from a unique perspective, follows its slow-burning plot to a sharp twist ending.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Ever since their father was convicted of the murder of five teenage girls and sentenced to life in prison, high school senior Sid Atkinson has been haunted by the ghosts of the victims. On the 10th anniversary of the first death, a recently murdered corpse is pulled out of Cardinal Lake in a clear copycat killing. When a second girl goes missing, suspicion quickly falls on Sid, who was already ostracized for both their father's crimes as well as their nonbinary identity. As they struggle to avoid the increasingly hostile small-town rumor mill, Sid finds solace in the company of Mavis Hastings, a Cardinal Creek newcomer who doesn't know about Sid's family. But when a sixth ghost shows up demanding justice, Sid realizes that the only way out of their father's shadow is to finally confront his crimes. Short, gut-wrenching interstitials of the victims' last moments intercut Sid's tensely introspective first-person narration in this tightly plotted true crime--informed murder mystery by Tyndall (Nothing Sung and Nothing Spoken). While the paranormal elements feel underdeveloped, Tyndall strikes an emotionally resonant chord via tender explorations of queer romance. Sid and Mavis are white. Ages 13--up. (May)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up--In this thrilling new mystery by Tyndall, a nonbinary teen tries desperately to have a normal life, despite having a father who is a convicted serial killer. Sid knew their father could not be involved in the girls who have started disappearing from their small town of Cardinal Creek, at least not this time--he could not be involved because he is already in prison for killing five other girls a decade earlier. However, when the bodies begin to be found in the same condition their father left his victims, suspicion from local law enforcement and the townspeople forces Sid to finally confront their father about why he committed such terrible crimes. When Sid's former best friend Sally Louise and their current love interest Mavin are both taken by the killer, along with Sid, the mystery of who is committing the recent murders and the connection to Sid's father are ultimately explained. Relationships are at the heart of this novel, and Tyndall excels at depicting the nuances of character development as well as the intricacies of personal motivations in interpersonal relations with a cast of diverse characters. VERDICT Hand to fans of Ellie Marney's None Shall Sleep and Jennifer Lynn Barnes's "The Naturals" series.--Susan Catlett
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A nonbinary teen is haunted by their father's serial killer past. The impact on Sid Atkinson of having a father in prison for being a serial killer has been crushing. Sid has changed their last name, lives with Gram in a trailer, and is visited by the ghosts of the five teenaged girls Dad murdered so gruesomely. Ten years after the first victim was killed, June Hargrove's body is found in the same lake as those of her predecessors. Sid knows their father didn't do it--he's serving time in prison--but the coincidence is triggering. As the body count ratchets up, and the patterns start to mirror their father's crimes, it becomes clear to Sid that a copycat is at work. Sid is willing to go to great lengths to discover who's murdering the teenage girls of Cardinal Creek, even going to see their father in prison for the first time in two years. Sid finds space, amid this recurring horror, to entertain a budding romance with mysterious new girl Mavis Hastings. But as Sid gets closer to the truth, their fear becomes conflated with the whispers of the ghosts, and people close to them end up in just as much danger as Sid is. This story moves at a fast pace, one so fast that Sid's inner turmoil--and quite possibly, the attention to their mental health--gets short shrift. Most characters are cued white. An absorbing, plot-driven, skin-crawling thriller. (Thriller. 13-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
