WATCHING JULY

A grieving teenager stumbles into an abusive relationship and is terrified by supernatural visions in this pedestrian thriller. Shy teen July despairs when she is moved by her recently deceased mom’s partner, Marie, from Vancouver to rural British Columbia. Her older sister is off at university and July feels immensely alone. So when a handsome boy, Ryan, singles her out, she is thrilled. The daughter of a psychologist, July is able to recognize his increasingly possessive behavior for what it is, but despite her growing unease, she continues with the relationship. Adding to her troubles, she is also visited by violent images of her mother’s hit-and-run death and is warned against Ryan by specter-like forms and by the appearance of menacing black ooze. Readers who have been paying even cursory attention are likely to guess the answer to the central mystery long before July does, and the textbook portrayal of an abusive relationship, as when July muses, “it’s an awkward dance of bullying and appeasement,” feels stiff and lacks dimension. (Thriller. 13 & up)