Amelia Anne Is Dead and Gone

“In a small town, unexplained tragedy can only go so long before it grows teeth, sprouts sharp claws, and turns, snarling, on its own self.” On the night of Becca’s high school graduation, her boyfriend, James, has sex with her in the back of his truck, then dumps her. The next day, the body of an unknown girl is found on the side of the road. The brunt of Rosen-field’s debut novel focuses on Becca, both in the present and in flashbacks that take readers through her romance with James, interrupted with occasional chapters that reveal Amelia’s last night alive. Becca, who has always longed to leave town, feels stagnant and wounded as she and James reconcile. Before Amelia died, she had just graduated college and was driving to Cape Cod with her boyfriend, the world opening before her. This layered and exquisitely written story explores the fallout from the murder as well as the dark side of love. Actions have real consequences in Rosenfield’s novel, and her suffocating smalltown setting is powerfully and chillingly evoked. Ages 14–up. Agent: Yfat Reiss Gendel, Foundry Literary + Media. (July)