NOVEMBER 2018 - AudioFile
Five years after Brynn and Mia are accused of murdering their best friend, Summer, they are brought together at her memorial and now must work to clear their names by finding the true killer. Narrator Sarah Drew establishes a bold voice for Brynn, reflecting her anger at being ostracized by her community, while narrator Erin Spencer creates a calmer voice for Mia. Passages from their favorite book, THE WAY INTO LOVELORN, and their fanfiction sequel, RETURN TO LOVELORN, are read throughout the story by narrator Saskia Maarleveld. Both add drama as the book and its sequel tragically reflect the way Summer was killed and could help solve the mystery. Listeners will quickly be drawn into this well-developed contemporary thriller. M.D. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
08/20/2018
When Vermont best friends Brynn, Mia, and Summer were 13, Summer was murdered under strange circumstances linked to the girls’ obsession with an old fantasy novel, The Way into Lovelorn. Five years after being publicly accused of, but never charged with, Summer’s murder, Brynn and Mia, still known as the Monsters of Brickhouse Lane, are determined to find out what really happened. Oliver (the Delirium Trilogy) tells her story in first-person chapters that alternate between Brynn, in rehab, and Mia, who is trying to dig herself out of her mother’s hoarded piles. In chapter interstitials, Oliver weaves excerpts fromThe Way into Lovelornas well as the fanfiction the three girls wrote when they were young, designed to offer an additional layer to the mystery. This novel has all the elements of a thriller—an unsolved murder, long-held secrets and lies, grieving best friends—yet it lacks necessary tension, and Brynn and Mia’s voices read as overly similar. The novel falls short of producing an urgent story with clearly distinct characters, but it succeeds in creating an eerie setting and atmosphere. Ages 14–up. Agent: Stephen Barbara, InkWell Management. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
Oliver masters the slow reveal in this mystery-laden thriller… Taut and twisting, Oliver’s latest is something special.” — Booklist (starred review)
“Captivating and sinister from the start, the novel’s depiction of female frenemies and villains is fresh and complex... A must-have.” — School Library Journal
“Expect readers to have much to discuss with a provocative and divisive conclusion... A page-turner for sure.” — Kirkus Reviews
“This novel has all the elements of a thriller—an unsolved murder, long-held secrets and lies, grieving best friends...[and] it succeeds in creating an eerie setting and atmosphere.” — Publishers Weekly
Booklist (starred review)
Oliver masters the slow reveal in this mystery-laden thriller… Taut and twisting, Oliver’s latest is something special.
The Horn Book
Retains all the tension and excitement of Oliver’s Delirium…A work with sharp corners, dark places, and considerable humanity.
ALA Booklist
PRAISE FOR PANIC: “Oliver, in a pitch-perfect teen voice, explores the power we have to affect the people around us in this intensely believable first novel. This is a compelling book with a powerful message and should not be missed.
Booklist
Oliver’s novel is a wholly believable and compulsively readable tale of friendship, loyalty, survival, and courage.
E. Lockhart
PRAISE FOR VANISHING GIRLS: “Alarming and uplifting, a rare psychological thriller that has a kind heart at its center. Read it with all the lights on.
School Library Journal
08/01/2018
Gr 10 Up—Oliver's latest thriller brings readers into the outskirts of Vermont, where two girls must work together to solve the cold case of their best friend's murder by locating her killer and simultaneously exonerating themselves in the public eye. Brynn, Mia, and Summer are an inseparable trio until the day that Summer is found viciously murdered, left as a sacrifice to someone—or something. In the aftermath, Brynn and Mia are never formally convicted, but they are found guilty in the court of public opinion. Years after, a wedge has been driven between them. At odds with the rest of the town, and even with their families, the two girls begrudgingly reconnect to sort out the truth of what happened. Their best clues are also the items that led the town to judge them as killers—the pages of a book the three had been writing together, in which the protagonist is brutally murdered. Captivating and sinister from the start, the novel's depiction of female frenemies and villains is fresh and complex, even if the resolution is a little tidy. The novel deals pretty heavily in sex, violence, and emotional cruelty—it's done well, but it's not for the faint of heart. Summer is like the second coming of Alison DiLaurentis from "Pretty Little Liars," except prone to animal abuse and even more unhinged. VERDICT Recommended for mature teens interested in reading about the everyday monsters they may encounter without ever knowing it. A must-have.—Emily Grace Le May, Williams School, Information Services Associate
NOVEMBER 2018 - AudioFile
Five years after Brynn and Mia are accused of murdering their best friend, Summer, they are brought together at her memorial and now must work to clear their names by finding the true killer. Narrator Sarah Drew establishes a bold voice for Brynn, reflecting her anger at being ostracized by her community, while narrator Erin Spencer creates a calmer voice for Mia. Passages from their favorite book, THE WAY INTO LOVELORN, and their fanfiction sequel, RETURN TO LOVELORN, are read throughout the story by narrator Saskia Maarleveld. Both add drama as the book and its sequel tragically reflect the way Summer was killed and could help solve the mystery. Listeners will quickly be drawn into this well-developed contemporary thriller. M.D. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2018-06-24
Friendship and fandom turn deadly for a group of teen girls.Quiet Mia, brash Brynn, and beautiful Summer—three 13-year-old friends living in rural Vermont—all bonded over their love of an obscure children's fantasy book The Way Into Lovelorn. Lovelorn has a famous midsentence ending, and the girls decide to compose their own fanfiction to imagine its resolution. However, when Summer is brutally murdered, Mia and Brynn (along with their friend Owen) are wrongfully accused of the crime, propelling the teens into unfortunate infamy with the moniker The Monsters of Brickhouse Lane. Five years later, they reunite to try to catch Summer's murderer. Alternating chapters, which jump between Mia's and Brynn's perspectives from when they were 13 and the present, also include snippets of metafictitious Lovelorn and bits of the girls' fanfiction. Although many other offerings have examined the turbulent machinations of teen girls, Oliver (Ringer, 2017, etc.) nimbly navigates the obsessive and erratic bonds the girls forge; mercurial Summer vacillates from charming to malicious, bewildering the others. While the characters are deftly portrayed, the mystery meanders into contrivance and convenience. Expect readers to have much to discuss with a provocative and divisive conclusion that may frustrate those who prefer a tidy resolution. While all characters are assumed white, Brynn is a lesbian, and a secondary character is fat-positive and pansexual. A page-turner for sure, but this meta romp teeters into preciousness. (Mystery. 14-adult)
