A Long Stretch of Bad Days

This animated and good-humored tale by McGinnis (The Last Laugh) features an intrepid teenage odd couple working together to gain entry into a prestigious journalism program by solving a mystery. Due to a mistake made by her high school guidance counselor, 18-year-old valedictorian Lydia Chass has just learned that she doesn’t have enough history credits to graduate. Her school principal suggests that if Lydia—who hosts a podcast called On the Ground in Flyover Country—records some episodes on the history of her Henley, Ohio, town, he’ll grant her the necessary credits. Hoping to give the podcast some much-needed grit, Lydia recruits acerbic classmate Bristal Jamison, who’s in a similar bind. They decide to focus on the 1994 unsolved murder of 65-year-old local trailer resident Randall Boggs, which leads them to a cold case involving a missing teenage girl. Together, the girls uncover decades-old secrets and reveal chilling truths about their small town and its close-knit community. Lydia and Bristal’s wry banter, their polar opposite characterizations, and their evolving, convoluted friendship lend a refreshing and dark joviality to this cleverly realized feminist thriller. All main characters are white. Ages 14–up. Agent: Adriann Ranta Zurhellen, Folio Literary. (Mar.)