Kill Call

A high school senior who experiences prophetic dreams of death must save a classmate from a grueling fate in Wooten’s high-concept debut thriller. Football star Jude Erickson lives in Little Rock, Ark.; drives an old Cadillac; and is happily dating fellow senior Molly. Jude is also a Dreamer, just like his father. As a Dreamer, his father envisions murders through the eyes of the killer before they’ve occurred, and it’s his job to go after the perpetrator and save the victim, known as the Chosen. Now it’s Jude’s turn, and the Chosen is his classmate Hanna Smith. His father has been training him for years, and Jude knows that he’s ready—or, at least, he thinks he is. When he arrives on the scene, however, Hanna has already rescued herself and is now marked by Fate; soon, someone will come to finish the job—and this time, Jude won’t get a warning. Wooten persuasively balances familiar adolescent concerns surrounding dating and friendships in Jude’s everyday life with high-intensity supernatural elements, and the pulse-pounding suspense of Hanna’s seemingly inevitable death paired with her and Jude’s brewing chemistry drive this taut and edgy read. Main characters cue as white. Ages 13–up. (Feb.)