What I knew about Drowning Instinct before reading it: Nothing. I loved the cover. I occasionally talk to Ilsa Bick on Twitter about challah and rugelach. I might have read a synopsis at one point, but by the time I read the book, I’d forgotten what it said. What you should know about Drowning Instinct [...]

Tags: family problems, high schools, mental illness, psychological fiction, secrets, self-injury, sports, teachers
Filed under: Book Review

While planning for her senior year at boarding school, Leena uses her connections with the Dean to have Frost House converted into a girls’ dormitory for the year. Leena’s interest in Frost House is more than casual; she’s obsessed with the place, and with architecture in general. She plans to live in the charming little [...]

Tags: boarding schools, dating, friendship, ghosts, psychological fiction
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Kendra, fifteen, hasn’t felt safe since she began to recall devastating memories of childhood sexual abuse, especially because she still can’t remember the most important detail– her abuser’s identity. Frightened, Kendra believes someone is always watching and following her, leaving menacing messages only she understands. If she lets her guard down even for a minute, [...]

Tags: art, emotional problems, homosexuality, psychological fiction, romance, self-injury, sexual abuse
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They’ve gotten good grades – but that’s not good enough. They’ve spent hours on community service – but that’s not good enough. Finn and Chloe’s advisor says that colleges have enough kids with good grades and perfect attendance, so Chloe decides they’ll have to attract attention another way. She and Finn will stage Chloe’s disappearance, [...]

Tags: college, family life, friendship, high schools, mystery, psychological fiction
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Edgar Award Winning author Tana French’s In the Woods and The Likeness are smartly-written crime novels with a good dose of psychological thriller mixed in. Both are set in Ireland, where the author took some license with her fiction and created a homicide squad. The first book is told from the perspective of Detective Rob [...]

Tags: crimes against children, detectives, murder investigation, psychological fiction
Filed under: Book Review