(Image from Barnes & Noble)

It has always been difficult for 15-year-old Nico Morris to live in the shadow of her older sister.  Beautiful, popular, and brimming with self-confidence, Sarah is everything Nico is not.  Even though Sarah has been gone for four years—she vanished from the Pennsylvania park where she was meeting her older boyfriend when she was 15—her presence still lingers.  The disappearance shattered the girls' parents; Nico, however, has felt only relief.  No one knows how cruelly Sarah treated her younger sister.  The daily taunting, the constant belittling, the never-ending bullying—no, Nico definitely does not miss Sarah. 

Then, a miracle occurs: Sarah has been found.  Suffering from retrograde amnesia, the 19-year-old can't explain where she's been.  She can't even remember the plot of her favorite book.  Obviously traumatized, this Sarah is malnourished, shy, and tentative.  Most shocking of all, she's nice.  Not sure what to make of the stranger beside her, Nico becomes convinced that the interloper isn't Sarah at all.  But if she isn't Nico's sister, then who is she?  If she is, then Nico has some serious questions for her.  What really happened to Sarah Morris?  Everyone is asking, but only one person knows the truth ...

I've read a couple books lately with the same premise as the one at the heart of The Stranger Game by Cylin Busby.  It's a fascinating idea, one different authors have explored in different ways.  Although the plot of The Stranger Game is almost identical to one of the "readalikes" I list below, I still found it to be a compelling page turner.  It's tense and twisty, with the kind of ending that makes you go, "Huh."  I'm still not sure what I think of it!  I do know that I whipped through The Stranger Game in a few hours, anxious to see how it would wrap up.  In the end, I liked the book, didn't love it.  Still, it's an engrossing psychological thriller that will appeal to fans of Gillian Flynn and Ruth Ware. 

*A couple interesting tidbits about this book and author:

—Busby has a disappearance story of her own, which she writes about in a memoir called The Year We Disappeared.

—The Stranger Game was inspired by the fascinating true case of Nicholas Barclay, a Texas boy who disappeared when he was 13.  Warning: to avoid spoilers, read about Nicholas only after you've read The Stranger Game.

(Readalikes:  Never Missing, Never Found by Amanda Panitch and Only Daughter by Anna Snoekstra)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for language (a few F-bombs, plus milder expletives), violence, and depictions of underage drinking

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Gertrude "Trudy" Swann knows exactly what to expect from her future.  After graduating from the Milwaukee College for Females, she'll marry sweet, straightforward Ernst, settle into a house not far from her parents', and rear a brood of well-tended children.  It will be a pleasant life, placid and predictable.  If only Trudy could settle for that!  But, no, the 19-year-old longs for adventure, something more than mundane Midwestern married life.  

When Trudy meets Ernst's cousin, Oskar, she's smitten with his charming, ambitious nature.  Despite her family's misgivings, the couple marry and set out on what promises to be a thrilling endeavor in California's rugged, remote Big Sur.  Point Lucia, the untamed island on which Oskar will be working as an assistant lighthouse keeper, is more primitive than the newlyweds ever could have imagined.  The only other people on the island are the Crawleys, an enigmatic family with plenty of secrets.  Immediately taken by the Crawley children, Trudy becomes their teacher, playmate, and co-explorer.  As she and Oskar adjust to their hardscrabble island existence, trouble soon surfaces in paradise.  Between Mrs. Crawley's constant disapproval, Oskar's increasingly unsettling behavior, and a shocking secret hiding in the rocks, Trudy's little adventure will turn into an extraordinary experience destined to change her life forever.

The Edge of the Earth by Christina Schwarz is a quiet, but compelling novel about finding oneself in the most unexpected of places.  Big Sur makes for a vivid, exotic setting.  Details about marine life and lighthouse keeping give the story authenticity without dragging it down.  Trudy, Oskar, and the rest of the cast are complex, intriguing characters.  I definitely wanted to know what was going to happen to them all.  Although The Edge of the Earth tells a sad story, I enjoyed this absorbing novel about the nature of a marriage, the nature of an island, and the nature of a woman on the cusp of discovering the person she is truly meant to be.  

(Readalikes:  Reminded me a little of At the Water's Edge by Sara Gruen)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for language (no F-bombs), violence, and mild sexual content

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for violence and brief, mild language (no F-bombs)

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

With her best—and only—friend off on an exciting foreign exchange student adventure, Tara Krishman is starting her junior year alone.  As the only person of color (Tara's dad is Indian, her mom Caucasian) in her posh Connecticut high school, she already feels out-of-place.  Without her BFF by her side, Tara knows it's going to be a long, lonely year.

Then, something incredible happens: a new planet is discovered.  Terra Nova seems to mirror Earth, even down to individual people.  Tara can't help but imagine another Tara in an alternate world.  Is Other Tara friendless or popular?  Shy or bold?  Scared or courageous?  

Weirdly, a small shift has occurred in Tara's real world.  When she receives an unexpected invitation to a party at the home of a super popular girl, Tara's thrown into the "it" crowd.  Suddenly, relationships she's only dreamed of are becoming real.  At the same time, things at home are changing.  Obsessed with Terra Nova, Tara's mom runs off to join a doomsday cult.  Her dad can't cope; neither can Tara, not really.  How can her life be going so wrong at the same time it's finally going so right?  How will these events, both cosmic and domestic, alter the course of Tara's life?  What will they teach her about family, friendship, and who she is as a person?

I grabbed Mirror in the Sky, a debut novel by Aditi Khorana, off the shelf because it had been voted a teen favorite by patrons of my local library.  The premise sounded interesting, so I decided to give the book a shot.  And?  Well, it was interesting, just not quite as interesting as I wanted it to be or interesting in the way I wanted it to be, if that makes sense.  Although the story sounds very sci-fi, it's not.  At its heart, Mirror in the Sky is a story about an ordinary teen girl trying to navigate her way through what is fast becoming an extraordinary year.  It's a blend of family conflict, friend drama, and awkward teen romance.  Terra Nova exists in the story only as a tool for reflection.  Bummer, that, because I found the mirror planet to be the most intriguing aspect of the novel's plot.  Tara and her friends just aren't that engaging—almost to a one, they are selfish, whiny, negative, petty, melodramatic, etc.  Also, unrealistic.  What teens have this much freedom (where are their parents?)  and vocabularies that allow them to toss around words like heteronormative and matrilineal in casual conversation?  Anyway, for me, the most compelling aspects of the novel remained the least developed.  In the end, then, Mirror in the Sky left me feeling unsatisfied.  It may be a teen favorite, but it didn't do a whole lot for me ...

(Readalikes:  Hm, I can't really think of anything.  Can you?)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for language (a dozen or so F-bombs, plus milder expletives), sexual content, and depictions of underage drinking and illegal drug use

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find