IMAGINING ELSEWHERE

It’s 1988 in Elsewhere, New York, and Astrid Friedman-Smith knows something is off about the town’s obsession with a powerful and very beautiful teen girl.

When her mother’s new job lands Astrid and her younger sister, Cecile, in Elsewhere for Astrid’s senior year, an interaction with Candi Clifton at school puts the girl’s bizarre degree of influence on full display. Astrid begins to uncover Candi’s deeply disturbing mind-controlling abilities that have led people to embarrassing or hurting themselves and even dying. She has a hold on the community because of their fear of her power, and when Astrid has a chance to get close to Candi, she plots a way to take her down. Astrid’s own past is storied, having intensely bullied a classmate of hers in Queens. Astrid is a complicated and at times selfish antihero, though she is remorseful. Hosey takes her time getting the plot going; the book initially spends too much time establishing Candi’s power. There are footnotes sprinkled throughout, some to explain unfamiliar elements from the time period, but Hosey also uses them to speak directly to readers. These notes are inconsistent, and not all references that could benefit from an explanation get one. Most main characters are cued as White; Astrid is Jewish, and she experiences antisemitism in her new town, where there is also a racial divide.

Despite uneven pacing, an interesting take on power, bullying, and fear.