From the first page, we are introduced to Jamie, a girl who is being sent off to work as an au pair on a small, secluded New England island. The island is mostly off the map to everyone except the locals, and a handful of 'lifers' who come every year to vacation in their summer homes. Jamie is put in charge of Isa, an 11 year old girl with a wild imagination and an unconventional family. Isa lives alone with Connie, her housekeeper, while her father is away in Hong Kong.
Soon after Jamie settles in, Milo, Isa's trouble making brother (who, at 14 years old, is gorgeous and totally off-limits) arrives after being kicked out of summer camp. While Isa loves Miles, the town and Connie all seem to be very against him being on the island.
Jamie quickly learns about the previous au pair and her boyfriend, and the tragedy that happened on the island last year. Jessie, Isa's old babysitter, was killed in an accident with her boyfriend, Peter. The town is very reluctant to talk about what happened, making Jamie more curious as to what happened. Jamie becomes more and more consumed by the deaths and the mystery surrounding them as she begins to see the dead couple around the island. This is not new to Jamie - she has been seeing her dead relatives, Hank and Uncle Jim, for a while now. While she is not sure why they are coming to her, or what they want, she has resorted to stealing pills from her family's medicine cabinet to make them go away.
Part ghost story and part psychological thriller, this book was fantastic from beginning to end. The whole thing played out very much like a movie, and reminded me quite a bit (in terms of tone, not story) of the movie The Others. The story kept you guessing right until the very end, and was loaded with twists and turns that caught you off-guard.
I especially liked the character of Jamie. She is not your typical cookie-cutter heroine - she has problems, like everyone else. She struggles with events from her past and the reality of her future throughout the book, and speaks in a very real voice. It is hard to tell what is real and what isn't for Jamie, as the pills she takes skew her vision of the world and the events that are happening. The fact that the main character is unsure of what is actually real throughout the book makes it all the more disturbing and unsettling for the reader. How can we draw conclusions about the outcome of the book if the heroine herself can't fully tell us what is happening? I thought this was a fantastic way to write the book; I was creating theories and making guesses right until the very end.
One thing I particularly liked was the ending. Looking back on the book now, there are so many little hints about what is coming at the end that just went right over my head when I read them. This book definitely merits a reread - I feel like I'll discover more clues and foreshadowing as I go through it. The twist at the end of this is definitely on par with the ending of The Sixth Sense and The Others in my mind, which is great!
This book is not out for the general public yet (it only comes out in May) but I do hope it gets the recognition it deserves. It was a fantastic YA novel, and I will definitely be singing praises about this one for a long time!
One thing to note: this book is partially based on Henry James' The Turn of the Screw, a novella from 1898. While I have not read the original (I certainly will if I can get my hands on it, though!) I've skimmed over the summary. It's not exactly the same - the story is similar at the start, but then Griffin takes the story to a whole new level and makes it her own. Since this is a modern retelling, with a different story at its core, the reader will get the same experience whether they've read the original or not.
SCORE: 8.8/10
IF YOU LIKE: The Turn of the Screw (Henry James), Ruined (Paula Morris)
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