Dream to Me

Packed with profound insights and ruminations on grief, Paasch’s stirring fantasy debut follows 16-year-old Eva Sylvan, who is reeling from her father’s death. Lacking the resources to continue living in N.Y.C., Eva and her 22-year-old half sister, Rhonda, travel to Madrona, Wash., to claim a heretofore unknown inheritance left for Eva by her great-aunt Miriam. The inheritance, and the house that comes with it, are not the fresh start they expected; instead, they’re shocked to find the residence in horrible condition. The townsfolk offer no aid, avoiding the girls and claiming that Miriam was a witch. To make things worse, people around town fall into unexplained comas almost immediately after appearing in Eva’s dreams, and, because she’s a Sylvan, the residents turn against her. Despite her pariah status, Eva finds comfort in her new friend, Bethany, who is Vietnamese, and falls for enigmatic Cal, who lives with anomic aphasia and aphantasia. With dignity and grace, Paasch methodically addresses the intense loneliness of grief and survivor’s guilt via Eva’s careful exploration of her budding supernatural powers and her tender developing relationships, wrapping it in an intriguing mystery tinged with horror and romance. Main characters cue as white. Ages 13–up. Agent: Natascha Morris, Tobias Literary. (Jan.)