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BYE-BYE, BLUE CREEK by Andrew Smith

BYE-BYE, BLUE CREEK

From the Sam Abernathy series, volume 2

by Andrew Smith

Pub Date: Oct. 13th, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-1958-2
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Twelve-year-old Sam Abernathy is prepared to say goodbye to Blue Creek, the small Texas town he’s endured his entire life.

And goodbye to being known as the boy who got stuck in a well all those years ago. But Blue Creek isn’t ready to say goodbye to Sam: Instead of spending the last few weeks before he departs for boarding school in Oregon chilling with his best friend, Karim, and Karim’s cousin Bahar (a girl whom Sam insists he does not have a crush on), Sam must reckon with the supernatural family of monsters that has moved into Blue Creek’s haunted manse, the Purdy House. After all, Sam can’t just leave his home behind knowing it might be in danger. The sequel to The Size of the Truth (2019) improves upon its predecessor in nearly every way: The plotting is tighter, the jokes are funnier, the characters are sharper, and the messaging is on point. Sam’s put-upon nature and the sharp-witted barbs slung between him and Karim make the novel into a crackling two-hander, creating a fun read. The novel’s tertiary characters have just enough shading to make the cast feel lived in save for one notable exception: Bahar is a promising character who isn’t given nearly enough page time to make the impact readers will want from her. Blue Creek is a mostly White community, but Bahar and Karim may be Persian; Karim is bisexual.

A much-improved sequel.

(Mystery. 10-14)