Nothing Bad Happens Here

Seventeen-year-old Pittsburgh native Lucia is heading to Nantucket with her mother to spend the summer with her mother’s wealthy boyfriend, Todd. Troubled by the recent death of her best friend Sammi, Lucia has low expectations for the visit, until she meets Todd’s attractive teenage son Eric. Spending time with Eric, as well as the girls she befriends through her seasonal ice cream parlor job—Selah, Tamar, and Kezia—help to raise Lucia’s spirits. Then she finds a dead girl on the beach, a discovery that dredges up past trauma. When authorities seem to have no answers regarding the girl’s identity or mysterious death, Lucia decides to investigate on her own. But as she grows closer with Selah, Tamar, and Kezia over the course of her inquiry, she realizes that the brash, adventurous trio could be hiding something troubling, and resolves to dig into their histories. Eric’s wealthy bad-boy college roommate Tristan provides another point of tension, one that leads to a picture-perfect climax aboard his father’s yacht. Plot twists keep the wheels of Courage’s suspenseful debut spinning while the mysterious girl gang and ample romantic frivolities provide the fun. The cast is intersectionally diverse. Ages 12–up. (Mar.)