Who Haunts You by Mark Wheaton (2023)
Had no idea that to expect with this book.....but wow, what a swift, creepy and unexpectedly complex little thrill ride. It wastes no time at all sucking you in to its story of an autistic teen girl seemingly tormented by a haunting that's killing off her classmates, one after the other.
Even as it maintains a literally breathless pace of suspense, scares and mind-bending twists, you still come to care deeply and fear for its narrator, Bex. She's forced to cope with way more than the everyday human interaction struggles of neurodiversity. Her school Claremont High boasts a student body heavily populated in overachievers with GPA's worthy of college placements reserved only for the best and the brightest. Bex, equally smart and armed with a deadpan wit, does her best to keep up with them.
But why are some of the classmates she grew up with dying in horrible accidents? And why, in their last moments do they appear to be fleeing in terror from something (or someone) unknown.....and unseen?
Bex quickly becomes desperate to find out, since this paranormal virus, or whatever it is, lands on her as its next victim. And her sense of what's real in her life and what isn't starts to rapidly warp like a funhouse mirror.
Given the sheer brevity of the book, I'm duly amazed and impressed at the density of the core mystery at the heart of all the strange goings on. There's truly some vast, overwhelming evil at work against Bex.........and as a fan of Hitchcock-type suspense, I couldn't help loving the scenes where she's hurled into the maddening position of sounding delusional to everyone around her.
With its satisfying, ironic finale twist, "Who Haunts You" finishes up as one of the fastest, most enjoyable YA thrillers of this year.......a well earned haunting 5 stars. (*****)
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