"I already gave my statement to the police, of course. Detective Thibeaut knows everything--or rather, she thinks she does. I just need to make one thing clear. It's true that I wished him dead dozens of times. Hundreds, even. But I, Lenny Winter, did not kill that boy."
Lenny, narrator of Eli Raphael's Night Objects never in her wildest dreams imagined starting her junior year of high school at The Blanchard School, a very strange boarding school for the sons and daughters of the ultra wealthy and powerful. Just earlier she and her mother and stepfather had moved into a houseboat in a small town in Washington State. She assumed she'd attend the local public high school...
...But then tragedy struck. She and her mom, both astronomy enthusiasts, had kayaked to an island to do some serious star gazing. Only shortly after they arrive her mother begins exhibiting alarming symptoms and insisting they go home. Before they arrive at the marina she is unconscious. By the next morning she is dead.
"Yes, it is shameful to say that I considered dying. But this is a story about the truth. So, I will tell you that, seven months after my mother died and I was sent to Blanchard, I found myself back in the ocean before dawn, next to another corpse, terrified, gagging on frigid saltwater, kicking against the bottomless darkness."
With this gruesome little clue dropped as early as chapter four, you know Lenny's boarding school experience is not going to be the idyllic life pictured in promotional brochures. She's grieving the loss of her mother. She fears that Blanchard is only the first step in her increasingly distant stepfather transferring custody to her father. And she very much doesn't fit in with her classmates. Her previous schooling has in no way prepared her for the academic rigor and strangeness. She struggles to pass her classes. And it's obvious that she's not an offspring of the rich and famous...
...which makes it feel strange when she's tapped (chosen) for The Pascalianum Club, a secret organization that's been at the school for over 150 years. They're really into rituals and ceremonies passed down through the decades. A lot of rule breaking and viciousness. But becoming a member sets one up for lifelong success through connections with all the right people, many of them alumni. Lenny is, indeed, troubled by much of what she observes and experiences. But with her new family she does not feel so heartbreakingly alone and vulnerable.
So how does this lead to swimming with a corpse? Who exactly is the newly deceased? Why would Lenny be suspected? And what's going to happen moving forward?
There's only one way to find out. If you're a true chiller affecianado you're gonna love the quest.
On a purrrsonal note, I'm going to share a bit of personal news that still has me stunned. As regular readers know, I've been participating in a readathon put on by Friends of the Orono Public Library to raise funds for the library expansion. I started with very modest sponsorship goals and kept having to raise them when I met them. Yesterday I was $40 short of $700 with one uncollected sponsorship to go. Only the librarians told me I was over $900. A very large check had been deposited in my envelope without me knowing. And someone was going to round it up to $1000. Imagine that!!! People keep thanking me. But for me it's a dream come true. I'd felt bad when Friends had sent out an appeal for people to donate because I couldn't. So having the chance to raise money for such a wonderful project by doing something I love to do? Like I said, dream come true. It's like thanking Tobago for chowing down on Fancy Feast entrees.
A great big shout out goes out to my fellow readers, our sponsors, and Friends of the Orono Public Library for providing this most wonderful opportunity.
Public libraries are amazing resources for communities providing access to books and so much more. In today's charged political climate book challenges and funding cuts are limiting what so many can do to serve their communities. It's probably going to get a lot worse. If you are fortunate enough to have access to a public library PLEASE do what you can to support and advocate for it. Don't let it be a case of not knowing what you have until it's gone.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my Galaxy
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