THE KEY TO SURVIVING SUMMER

This suspenseful novel in verse for reluctant readers uncovers a small-town secret and considers the ties that bind the living with the beyond.

Sixteen-year-old Moe is unhappy with her parents’ decision to spend the summer in a quaint lakeside cottage that’s filled with spiderwebs and located near a town marked by a tragic history. She doesn’t want to be away from her best friends, Amber and Julia, who are bonding at camp counselor training without her. One day, as she’s exploring the lake, Moe meets a young boy named Zeke, who shows her a cave where she finds an oddly shaped key attached to a rusty chain. Soon afterward, Moe begins to experience disruptive visions of a girl from the past. Emotionally shaken and isolated, Moe begins to doubt her friends’ reliability. Trying to understand the strange girl’s secrets, she seeks clues at the local library and embarks on a quest with Zeke to solve the town’s mysteries. Moe’s visions reveal tensions involving a trio of girls from the 1950s that mirror her present-day concerns; she worries that distance will rupture the bond she shares with Amber and Julia. Layered with anxieties about self-doubt and friendship challenges, this satisfying story delivers quick pacing and an emotional core with wide appeal. A gently mounting tension serves as the backdrop for discovery, and realism anchors Moe’s visions. Characters largely read white.

A bingeable mystery.