Bad Graces

March 11, 2024
At 16, twin sisters Violet and Everly Whitlock have moved from one foster home to another. Compared to her demure sibling, Violet has always been the “troubled child, the rebellious one”; even discovering her passion for poetry hasn’t helped her escape her reputation. To obtain a summer internship working on a movie adaptation of The Tempest in Alaska, Violet steals Everly’s identity and sets out on her own. But the yacht transporting Violet and several of the film’s stars drifts off course and shipwrecks near the coast of a mysterious island. Free from societal pressures and able to explore their true selves, Violet and her companions, including singer Paris Grace, actor sisters Effie and Miri Knight, Olympic gymnast Rosalind Torres, and influencer Celia Jones, confront their respective traumas and discover the island’s deepest secrets—such as the monster that lurks in the woods. The six racially diverse girls undergo terrifying yet empowering transformations as they struggle to survive and work to redefine themselves in this emotionally raw and sometimes brutal tale by McCauley (All the Dead Lie Down). “We’re teenage girls. We’ve all been prey before,” Effie says of their predicament, encapsulating a powerful story, though one that’s over too quickly. Ages 14–up.

April 15, 2024
Teen girls must survive on an island that harbors a terrible secret. Twins Liv and Everly have been through more than a dozen foster homes, and Liv is the reason why: She's set fire to a house and punched a foster brother. When they finally find kind foster parents, Liv, who can tell her welcome is wearing thin, steals Everly's identity to win an internship on the Alaska set of a film version of The Tempest. Setting out on a fancy yacht with producer Vincent Bellegarde, five teen girl celebrities, and the crew, Liv hopes only to escape her current life. She's wondering whether she's out of her element when disaster strikes, and the boat is wrecked in a violent storm. The survivors--the six girls and Vincent--wash up on an island somewhere in the Pacific. Because they sailed off course to look for whales, no one knows where they are--and they have no way to contact rescuers. Worse still, they're not alone: Someone or something terrifying is on the island, and they must escape before the experience turns them into monsters themselves. McCauley's feminist spin on Shakespeare and Greek mythology is both lush and disturbing. Though the plot races forward at a shocking pace, each character feels fully formed, helping to construct a brutally relatable portrait of what it is to be a teenage girl. Apart from one girl who is Puerto Rican and one who is Black, most main characters are cued white. Compulsively readable. (Thriller. 14-18)

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Starred review from May 1, 2024

Gr 9 Up-Liv Whitlock stole her sister's life for a second chance. Having lived a lifetime of foster homes and being deemed volatile and violent by her social worker, Liv's last straw is when her sister Everly tries to smother her in her sleep. Using her greatest talent, writing, and her sister's better grades and reputation, Liv wins an internship on a film set in Alaska. Along with actors and sisters Effie and Miri, athlete Rosa, singer Paris, and influencer Celia, Liv joins the film's director Vincent on a luxury yacht trip to the film location. However, when the yacht capsizes during a storm, the girls wash up on a mysterious island in the Pacific Northwest. Stalked by a mysterious predator and fighting to survive, Liv realizes the island is not what is seems and all the girls will be forever changed. McCauley creates a fast-paced plot with an engaging mystery that will hook readers from the beginning. The story and characters will most likely engage readers who enjoy the fantasy, survival, queer romance, or horror genres. VERDICT A modern, twisted dark fairy tale, perfect for fans of Krystal Sutherland and established fans of McCauley.-Kaetlyn Phillips

Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2024
Grades 9-12 Everly Whitlock is perfect. Despite years of being shuffled around the foster system, she has perfect grades, a packed social calendar, and big ambitions. Now, she's won an internship from the Shakespeare Center on the Alaskan film set of The Tempest. But it's not Everly who boards the yacht transporting the producer and the movie's big-name starlets to Alaska; It's Liv, her dark-horse twin sister, who has a history of violence and an artist's soul. Liv takes Everly's place on the film set--and on the boat that goes down in the Pacific. It's a group of six girls that washes up on an island, but the shipwreck is only the beginning of their horrors: there's a monster on the island, and to survive it, they may have to leave their own humanity behind. Some characterizations are thinly sketched, but this is a book of atmosphere. McCauley (All the Dead Lie Down, 2023) takes the strands of The Tempest and weaves them into an eerie, almost psychedelic tale that Yellowjackets fans will devour.

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