40 DAYS IN HICKSVILLE

Kate Cooper likes exploring—until a creepy discovery hits close to home.

Fifteen-year-old Kate has just moved east across Canada to her mother’s childhood home in the small town of Clarendon, which she’s dubbed Hicksville—and she’s not happy about it. It’s just Kate and her mom, as her unstable dad is barely around. Zach Whitchurch, Kate’s neighbor and classmate, keeps riding over to her house on his John Deere lawn mower, and the two bond over their mutual interest in Kate’s paternal grandfather, who’s rumored to have killed his wife. Exploring the woods on her grandfather’s property, Kate and Zach come across a crevasse that merits further exploration. But when Zach finds a human skull, it leads to a web of secrets unraveling. The story is told in alternating first-person chapters from Kate’s and Zach’s perspectives. Character development is unfortunately lacking; it feels like there’s little more to Zach than his interest in Kate, while Kate comes across as a stereotypical rebellious teenager. Repetitive events—ditching school to snoop and sneaking into the woods—become tiresome as they drive the story to its underwhelming climax. One highlight of the book, however, is its depiction of how trauma affects families’ well-being; Kate’s parents each carry demons from their pasts into their present lives. Most characters read white.

A thin mystery with ultimately forgettable characters.