I.R.L.

Upon first moving from San Francisco to small, rural White Pines, Alaska, due to her mother’s occupation studying renewable energy, sixth grader Lucy Bell-Rodriguez is excited to leave her former bullies behind. Yet she’s disheartened when she’s stuck at home doing remote learning from October to April, waiting out the treacherous Alaskan winter. Now that spring has sprung, though, it’s finally time for her first day of in-person schooling; Lucy is eager to get to know her classmates beyond her computer screen. But on her first IRL day at White Pines Secondary School, Lucy arrives to a burned-down building with no one in sight. Convinced she has the wrong address, Lucy tries to find her school again and instead stumbles upon a graveyard with headstones bearing the names of her classmates. Is Lucy the victim of some elaborate prank, or are there supernatural forces at play? Lucy’s palpable new-kid anxieties and earnest search for friendship following past bullying and virtual schooling adds emotional depth. Immersive descriptions of the remote Alaskan landscape inject eerie appeal to this sinister paranormal mystery by Goebel (Backcountry). Lucy is described as having “pasty skin.” Ages 8–12. (Feb.)