Secrets So Deep

In this dreamy paranormal tale from Sain (Dark and Shallow Lies), 17-year-old Avril Vincent travels to Whisper Cove off the Long Island Sound to attend an acting boot camp run by reclusive playwright Willa Culver. But Avril isn’t there just to study theater; she believes that Willa, once best friend to Avril’s late mother, may have answers regarding her mother’s mysterious drowning more than a decade prior. Avril only remembers waking up in a hospital the day her mother died, and her memories are cloudy, but upon arriving to town, she contends with hallucinations and traumatic flashbacks. Joined by her fellow campmates—including Willa’s brooding and enigmatic son Cole, with whom Avril develops a deep romantic relationship—she begins piecing together the truth about her mother’s past, and her own. With salient detail, Sain renders appropriately harrowing twists and reveals, and depicts a setting that reads as its own character, providing ethereal ambiance and a palpably unmoored feeling of anticipatory tension. The seething, surrealistic imagery is sure to stay lodged in readers’ minds long after they’ve finished. Most characters read as white. Ages 14–up. (Sept.)