The Uninvited

In Winters’s (author of YA novels including In the Shadow of Blackbirds) dark and romantic adult novel, an act of shocking violence encourages a young woman to flee her rural Illinois home amid the influenza outbreak of 1918. When 25-year-old Ivy Rowan’s brother and father commit a terrible act, Ivy, recovering from the flu, flees her home, takes a room in town, and even begins driving an ambulance for the Red Cross. Ivy’s always been able to see spirits (the “uninvited”), and amid so much death and sickness, it seems she’s seeing them at every turn. However, she soon finds refuge in a passionate, forbidden romance, and in a love for jazz, but she wonders if her newfound freedom can last in a world that seems to be coming apart at the seams. The author effectively captures the dangers of the period, and yet Ivy finds bastions of human kindness and acceptance. Her compelling voice carries this gothic coming-of-age story, at once horrifying and tender, toward a revelatory yet hopeful conclusion. (Aug.)