Of Scars and Stardust

August 1, 2014

Gr 7-10-Claire is forced by her parents to leave her small town in Ohio for New York City after her sister Ella is brutally attacked one night in a cornfield. The facts surrounding this attack are muddled and Claire feels intense guilt for leaving Ella alone that night and is convinced, in spite of her sister's clean wounds, that it was the teeth of wolves and not a knife that destroyed her face. For two years, in a world of cell phones and email, Claire has not spoken to her sister, whom she was closer to than anyone. Suddenly, Claire gets the news that Ella has now gone missing, so she rushes back to Ohio to find her. With the help of her love interest, Grant Buchanan, she begins to piece together her past memories, town legends, and half-truths long hidden in search of not only her sister, but also the true source of the vicious attack. Claire finds a map in Ella's things, with a red circle drawn repeatedly around a town, but sets this aside and keeps searching for a clue that will help her find her sister. Eventually an orange mitten is found hundreds of miles away in a train station that is identified as Ella's. The faster paced second half tries to tie together several plot elements, especially bringing into question the narrator's reliability, but doesn't quite succeed. Readers who stick it out until the end will likely be left unsatisfied and scratching their heads.-Heather Acerro, Rochester Public Library, MN

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August 15, 2014
This crime thriller will have readers guessing whether it's paranormal or psychological. Claire has grown up in a tiny town in Ohio, where her father is the police chief. Fifteen-year-old Claire is at a secret party in the cornfields when her little sister, Ella, shows up. Claire sends her home alone even though it's late, only to discover the next morning that the girl has been attacked and her face mutilated. Sent to New York, Claire, grown cynical and now involved with a drug dealer, learns two years later that Ella has disappeared again, and she heads home to search for the girl. Small-town life turns nasty when she's accused of hurting her sister. But Claire firmly believes that wolves live in the cornfields and are the true guilty parties. Everyone thinks she's crazy except police intern Grant, her longtime secret heartthrob. As she and Grant investigate and learn that Claire's father has some connection to an earlier disappearance, events spiral out of control. Hannah presents events through Claire's point of view, even while clearly hinting that Claire may be an unreliable narrator. She might persuade readers that those wolves are real and that this indeed might be a paranormal story. Readers will be left with no doubt by the end of the book, but they can enjoy speculating throughout. An intriguing puzzle of a book. (Paranormal/psychological suspense. 14-18)

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October 1, 2014
Grades 7-10 When Claire was 15, somethingor someoneattacked her younger sister Ella in the cornfield near their house, leaving Ella for dead. Claire is convinced it was the wolves she hears howling at night that were responsible, though most people in Amble, Ohio, deny their existence, so she flees to her aunt in New York. Now 17 and still haunted by her past, Claire returns home when Ella disappears, determined to find her sister and those responsible for her attack, no matter the cost. This psychological thriller reads like a Robert Cormier version of Twilight: Claire is not really likable, but readers will identify with her and the war in her own soul. The Ohio setting in particular is artfully rendered, making this the perfect read for a snowy day. A dark, uncomfortable book with a gothic sensibility, this moves relentlessly toward its conclusion, dragging readers in its wake. Expect teens to need to talk about the ending to this macabre tale.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)