July 17, 2023
Twelve-year-old Hazel Woods, a would-be sleuth, can’t resist the temptation to eavesdrop on her older brother Den’s phone conversation, during which he makes plans to meet his best friend Everett after dark at Woodland Cemetery. Though Hazel believes that a graveyard in Forest Park, Ill., is “not the kind of place you want to hang out in the dark. Or in the light. Or anytime, really,” Hazel trails Den, eager to investigate rumors of hauntings. Accompanied by her best friend Maggie, Hazel follows the boys to the cemetery, where a game of hide and seek results in Everett’s disappearance. Den, Hazel, and Maggie resolve to find him, but as their frantic search unfolds, disturbing messages reading “found u” and creepily scrawled smiley faces begin appearing on random objects. This relentlessly eerie ghost story by Currie (The Girl in White)—based on the 1918 Hagenbeck-Wallace train disaster, per an author’s note—sometimes struggles to maintain a steady gait. Still, malevolent atmosphere permeates this terrifying telling, and Hazel’s energetic first-person voice, combined with her organic relationship with Den, will invest readers from the jump. Protagonists cue as white. Ages 8–13. Agent: Shannon Hassan, Marsal Lyon Literacy.