Liquid, Fragile, Perishable

Kuebler debuts with a pitch-perfect narrative of a small Vermont town and the intersecting lives of its residents. Some of the novel’s many characters are directly impacted by the arrival of Jim and Sarah Calper, who move to Glenville, Vt., from New York City with their teenage son, Will. Drama ensues after Will attracts attention from his classmate Sophie, a budding singer-songwriter. Among Sophie’s best friends is the homeschooled Honey, who Will chooses over Sophie, causing her to be intensely jealous. The cast also includes the infamous LeBeau boys, including Eli, who’s called the “runt of the family” by his father and who pines after Honey, spying on her and Will making out in the woods. Eli’s oldest brother, Cyrus, is making and selling a synthetic drug called Z8, and Kuebler crafts mesmerizing scenes of Eli wandering the woods while high off Cyrus’s stash, fantasizing about burgling the Calper house (“Look how these rich people live up here, with their big bright windows shining out for everyone to see”). Kuebler applies the same succinct style to all the characters’ points of view, laying bare their emotions at various crisis points, including a drowning and an unplanned pregnancy, which force the people of Glenville to reconcile with each other. This is iridescent. (May)