The Book of Living Secrets

The proprietor of the Witch’s Eye Emporium offers best friends Adelle and Connie, both 16 and white, the opportunity to physically enter the world of their favorite gothic romance novel, Moira, in Roux’s (Tomb of Ancients) atmospheric portal fantasy. For occult- and romance-obsessed Adelle, it’s a chance to meet her “book boyfriend,” debonair Severin Sylvain, and live out her favorite scenes. Athletic, practical, and closeted Connie hopes to meet the book’s titular character, her first crush, and “kiss a pretty girl under a full moon with nobody there to whisper or judge.” Transported individually via spell, Connie and Adelle arrive at different parts of the story, but the novel’s realistic Victorian-era Boston setting has transformed into a terrifying nightmare in which beloved characters act in unpredictable ways and an abomination lurks in the harbor. Roux’s sense of place is vivid, and Moira’s escapist romance, Lovecraftian horror elements, and the fangirl-tinged levity of the protagonists’ third-person voices create a meta tale that’s successfully imbued with an air of dread and paranoia. Ages 14–up. Agent: Kate McKean, Howard Morhaim Literary. (Mar.)