MMGM- At the Speed of Lies and Hatchet Girls

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Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
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Unleashing Readers

Are my readers the only blood thirsty middle grade ones? They constantly ask me for murder mysteries, and so many of the Young Adult ones have drinking, drugs, sex, and language that is WAY too colorful for me to be comfortable handing the book to students. Here are two more Young Adult titles that didn't make me too uneasy that I know will be HUGE hit with my true crime podcast loving eleven year olds.

Otis, Cindy L. At the Speed of Lies
June 6, 2023 by Scholastic Press
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central

Quinn Calvet lives in Canadaigua, New York with her older sister Ava and her parents, who run a gift shop that is barely surviving. They all live in the walk out basement of the shop along the main street, and this sometimes causes problems for Quinn, who is in a wheelchair due to the effects of her rheumatoid arthritis, that makes walking painful and tiring. She has had an Instagram account known as The Whine for some years, and she uses it to draw attention to her town and funny things that happen at her school. It's an open secret that she runs it. She has a bad history with Cade Bird, so when he starts a group called Defend Kids to help with the disappearance of area teens, including a brother and sister in Rochester that makes the news, she is surprised. When Ava, who is intent on getting into college and constantly doing new activities to pad her resume, starts to help, Quinn posts a few things on the account. These get a lot of likes, and she sees her followers rise. Since she has some paid partnerships, she hopes that this success will help, especially when she finds out how much the gift shop is struggling and worries that her parents might not be able to help with college. When Asher, a boy at her school, offers to help design a logo to help with his application to the Rhose Island School of Design, she agrees. Asher is the son of the owners of an important local business, but he's cute, attentive, and treats the fact that Quinn is in a wheelchair in a way that pleases her. He follows the news of Defend Kids, and the Defenders who claim that hundreds of kids get kidnapped every year, along with Quinn. When classmates Phoenix and Lily go missing, there is even more concern. Even with all the trouble swirling around, Quinn and Asher (who is a cross country runner, albeit not the best on the team) spend lots of time together and decide to date. They combine business with pleasure when they schedule going to a Defenders meeting right before the school dance they are attending together. Unfortunately, the have a falling out at the dance over what they've seen, and when Asher goes on vacation with his family, they don't talk a lot. Things become more and more serious with the Defend Kids group; Quinn finds a reputable article that states that the children in Rochester were fabricated, and finds that her Instagram account is viewed by these extremists as a place to get coded messages. When she takes down these posts, and later deletes the account, things get really bad. Cade doxes her, and she fears for her safety. Will she be able to convince Ava that Defend Kids is a bad idea, clear up her misunderstandig with Asher, and survive high school long enough to get to college?

Otis is a former CIA officer, and an expert on disinformation threat analysis, so her Defend Kids group is very realistically portrayed, and shows how pervasive and damaging these groups can be. I particularly liked the character of Dillion, who is a bit of a loner and really buys into the whole conspiracy theory, but is at least open minded enough to listen to Quinn when she tries to explain to him why the group isn't what he thinks it is. This comes so close to fringe groups that have actually existed that it is rather chilling to see how the effects on one small town impact Quinn and her friends. 

This is also a romance, and Quinn and Asher have a rocky but ultimately satisfactory one. I loved that he asks her about the accomodations that she might need in exactly the way she wants, and even offers to build a ramp at his house so that she can vistit. Her friend Ximena is involved in her own romance with Mike, and the estrangement between the two girls is realistic. Quinn's friends are also supportive of her and listen for her cues when she needs help. Quinn's determination to NOT need help is well portrayed, and the struggles that she goes through in her daily life are shown as significant but not impossible. The author is a wheelchair user, and it's helpful to see these challenges protrayed in a way that doesn't overwhelm the story. 

At the Speed of Lies is many things; a romance, a positive depiction of someone in a wheelchair, and an excellent, timely thriller about the dangers of the influence of social media. Books covering social media can become outdated quickly, but this has the staying power of Averbuch's Friend Me and Vaught's 2008 Exposed, or for younger readers, Feldman's Ezra Exposed. 

This will probably be my nomination for the Cybils' Young Adult Realistic Fiction award. 

Wallach, Diana Rodriguez. Hatchet Girls

October 10, 2023 by Delacorte Press

Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central

Tessa and Vik Gomez have encouraged their mother to move from Philadelphia to Fall River, Massachusetts after the death of their father. Tessa feels guilty for various reasons, and instead of going out to parties during her junior year, she opts to stay home. Her brother, a senior, is dating Mariella Morse, the daughter of local real estate magnates and the owners of the Lizzie Borden house in town. Mariella was raised alongside Phil, whose parents run the museum and hotel attached to the questionable tourist attraction. Phil is interested in Tessa, who keeps putting him off because of her vow to remain responsible. What the people in town don't know is the dark side of Mariella's family life; her father abuses her mother physically, and Mariella hates him so much that she plans his murder. She is descended from the Borden clan, and manages to harness the local questionable powers by creating a "tea" from herbs, roots, and moss found in the Freetown Woods, which is often referred to as the Cursed Forest. Drinking this tea has caused voices in her head that encourage her to kill her father. She has a plan; her father is allergic to penicillin, and she managed to get a vial of it from an elderly neighbor for whom she does errands. She plans to rope Vik into administering the shot. We see her plotting, but go back and forth from this time to the present. Vik has been found standing over the bodies of both of her parents, who have been violently killed with an axe. Vik is arrested, and his family from Philadelphia comes to help out. Vik's biological father is also in jail, so suspicion is high and Tessa has to deal with a lot of hatred. She knows her brother is not the violent type, and many things seem odd about his presence. With the help of Phil, and her cousin Oscar, she sets out to investigate the eerie history of the town and the Bordens, and its relationship to the murder. What really happened?

This was a gruesome but fascinating Young Adult murder mystery that I feel comfortable handing to my  middle grade readers. There is some talk of Mariella and Vik "hooking up" in the forest, but even I am not entirely sure what that means in this instance! There are some violent and bloody scenes, but the real killer is not entirely human, thanks to the supernatural component of the plot. There's no colorful language, but plenty of high school freedom to wander around town to investigate, as well as a deep dive into history of a "haunted" area.

The relationships between the main characters were also fascinating, and Phil's kind and supportive interest in Tessa took a bit of a dark turn, but I don't want to spoil things! The Gomez' family's close knit ties are evident when they drop everything to come to the side of Tessa and her mother, who are still reeling from the loss of the father. The light and reluctant romance with Phil adds some tension, and Mariella is a complicated character that elicits more sympathy than one would imagine.

This is a fantastic thriller to entice readers who can't get enough true crime information and like it flavored with a bit of the supernatural, although perhaps not exactly with the dirt and blood scented cocktail that Mariella concocts! Readalikes include Otis' At the Speed of Lies, Han's Running Past Dark, Johnson's Truly Devious series, and Monahan's Mary: The Summoning.