THE BOOK OF LIVING SECRETS

Best friends magically transported into their favorite book find themselves in a nightmarish landscape.

Adelle is a romantic dreamer and fan of the mystical, while closeted Connie prefers sports. But both love Moira, a little-known romance novel set in Victorian-era Boston. When a shopkeeper offers to send them into the world of the book, they accept—but the friends are separated, landing in different parts of the storyline. They realize that while some things are familiar, there are supernatural horrors here that weren’t present in the novel they love. In this version, dreams and voices are driving people to walk into the sea. The characters’ personalities aren’t what they expected either. Adelle finds herself among the rich main characters, while Connie winds up with the Penny-Farthings, poor thieves who only played a minor role in the original tale. As the teens try to find their way back to each other and home, they develop new friendships and romantic interests even as the horrors around them grow worse. The story starts off at a leisurely stroll; the pacing amps up as the story progresses, culminating in an intense, action-packed finale. The setting and atmosphere are exquisitely rendered, and the horrors veer into the splendidly bizarre. The leads are captivating, and the secondary characters round out the story. Main characters are White; there is racial diversity in the supporting cast, and racism doesn’t seem to exist in this alternate world.

Imaginative, weird, and enthralling.