Our Brothers at the Bottom of the Bottom of the Sea

Twin tragedies link two teens working at a boardwalk amusement park: Rachel and Ethan both recently lost their brothers to deadly accidents. Rachel is eager to know the truth behind her brother’s fall from a roller coaster, and in unraveling the mystery she uncovers an insidious undercurrent of corruption in Sea Town that points to answers in the death of Ethan’s brother, Jason. Alternating between entries in Jason’s journal and chapters that focus on the surviving siblings, debut novelist Kranz presents a disjointed plot, populated by characters that are, at best, opaque and, at worst, props (readers learn that Rachel’s brother, Curtis, had Down syndrome, but he has little else in the way of an individual narrative). Kranz’s wordplay, like the title itself, has a poetic quality, with details evoking the gritty life of resort-town residents, but the story tries too hard to retain an aura of mystery—Jason’s journal entries show up long before Ethan discovers the book itself, and it isn’t clear Jason is writing them until well into the book. Ages 14–up. Agent: Marcy Posner, Folio Literary Management. (June)