Who Is Mackie Spence?

In Kaymer’s first novel, set on a small island in Puget Sound, 16-year-old Jeremy’s life is refocused after his childhood friend Mackie nearly drowns during a boating excursion. Jeremy has fallen in love with Mackie at the wildlife center where they both volunteer, but ever since the accident—during which Mackie was in the water for several hours and fell into a coma—animals have been acting uncharacteristically respectful and calm around Mackie, and injured ones seem to exert a strange pull on her. Meanwhile, at school, Mackie’s aggressive ex, Brody, is determined to win her back. When a Ouija board yields the cryptic message “Save Akeso,” Mackie and Jeremy begin to wonder if it’s her destiny to be a healer and what his role in her life is meant to be. While the novel’s aura of otherworldly strangeness, dashed with moments of danger, is somewhat compelling, the characters and the budding romance between Jeremy and Mackie are only loosely sketched. The mystery surrounding Mackie is quite slow to build, and an oddly structured, tacked-on epilogue adds little in the way of closure. Ages 12–up. (Jan.)