Light as a Feather

October 1, 2018
"What about Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board? Have you guys ever played that?"Grim fates were sealed the night the popular girls of Willow High gathered for Olivia Richmond's 16th birthday sleepover. McKenna Brady, the story's narrator, believes the creepy levitation game is nothing more than group hypnosis, but the mysterious newcomer to their school, Violet Simmons, unnerves the partygoers with a detailed story describing Olivia's death as she returns from shoe shopping at the mall. McKenna has recently shed glasses, braces, and 20 pounds to discover a newfound "power of being pretty" after being bullied for her appearance. It was supposed to be a fabulous junior year, but while the girls get ready for the Fall Fling dance, Olivia heads out to the mall to find a perfect pair of shoes--and meets a gruesome death on her way home. Was it just a strange coincidence? Luckily, McKenna can turn to her handsome neighbor to hold her hand during the ghostly visitations she begins to experience and to figure out the mystery before tragedy strikes again. An irreverent mashup of mean, teen-queen comedy and supernatural ghost horror story, readers looking for light, spooky fun will enjoy the pace and romance, but others may find the characters superficially flat without any salvaging wit. Most characters are assumed white; some are indeterminate.A well-paced supernatural mystery that entertains but never quite explains. (Horror. 13-16)

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November 15, 2018
Grades 9-12 In a small Wisconsin town, life is uneventful until Violet arrives. Invited to Olivia's sixteenth birthday party, she livens things up by suggesting the girls play Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board. As Violet tells each girl's violent death story, the girls chant and levitate the subject. What starts out as an innocent game turns into a paranormal string of events in keeping with Violet's predictions, which McKenna desperately needs to prevent before she and her friends die. Originally published on Wattpad, this version of the story has undergone a few changes and is slated to become a Hulu original series. The first of a planned trilogy, book one is told from McKenna's point of view, so the reader experiences everything as it happens to her. Like Twilight, the writing isn't polished and the characters often seem interchangeable, but the story's popularity may rise because of its compelling darkness and come-from-behind creepiness. Readers looking for something to give them the shivers and tingles of a good horror story will want to read this.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)