The Telling
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A “haunting…addictive” (Publishers Weekly) novel about a teen who must delve into her past if she wants to live long enough to have a future when murders eerily similar to the dark stories her brother used to tell start happening in her hometown—now with updated text and a brand-new look!
You swore on summer.
Ben was Lana’s world. He was her big brother, her best friend, her summer. And then he was murdered in a grisly carjacking, and her world ended.
Now, six months after Ben’s death, Lana is trying to reinvent herself. She’s found her way into the inner circle of popular kids, and the Lana she is now—bold, daring, brash, adventurous—barely resembles the shy, unpopular Lana she used to be.
And then a body turns up. At first, everyone thinks it’s just a horrible accident. But when more corpses are discovered, Lana realizes the details of the murders eerily match the dark fairy tales Ben used to tell her—stories that only she and Ben knew.
Is Ben seeking vengeance from the grave? Or has a darker phantom from their past come to haunt Lana’s present?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Sirowy's second novel, after The Creeping, a macabre spirit haunts Gant Island, home to Pacific Northwest multimillionaires. A few months ago, 17-year-old Lana McBrook was "an earthworm dreaming of being a python," happy to spend the summer before her senior year studying with her best friend Willa. Now following the disappearance and presumed death of Lana's stepbrother, Ben, after a gruesome attack she parties with the popular clique, including longtime crush Josh Parker. Then the group discovers the drowned remains of Ben's girlfriend, Maggie, suspected of aiding in his disappearance. As more bodies appear, Lana, who admits "I am a sometimes liar," decides that Ben's ghost has returned to avenge their enemies. When the murders include clues from Ben's nightmarish childhood stories, Lana bravely investigates, coming to terms with her conflicted feelings for Josh and Ben. Though overly florid descriptions and a sensationalist plot detract from the gothic strains somewhat, Siroway's cliffhangers and red herrings lure readers toward a haunting finale. Intriguing questions about the nature of storytelling permeate this addictive novel. Ages 12 up.
