(2) YA This psychological mystery with hints of a feminist utopia taps into and explores contemporary live-wire issues: gender warfare, abuse, power, vigilantism, and disillusionment with society. The novel opens in dark wilderness with an am-bush by “the law” on feral-seeming thirteen-year-old Talia and her mother Pola, a “dangerous” fugitive who’s arrested on the spot. In the present day, six-teen-year-old Talia lives with her maternal aunt’s family; she’s misunderstood and desperate to return to the isolated community where she was raised. Flash-back sections cover life at the Neves, an abandoned hotel at a once-grand Jewish resort hidden in the Catskills, as it grows into a self-sustaining commune and an underground haven for abused women and daughters. Teenage Talia’s story line in the “flatlands” centers on a search for truth and understanding regarding Pola’s crimes, Aunt Rachele’s intentions, her cousin Lake’s increasingly traumatic romantic relationship, and what really happened at the Neves. Elements of magic and surrealism dip in and out of the storytelling, furthering the dizzying nature of Talia’s narration -- clouded by naiveté, brainwashing, or something less worldly. Suma’s (A Room Away from the Wolves, rev. 9/18) novel is an emotion- more than plot-driven story, with plenty in which readers will luxuriate: the lush atmosphere and breathtaking setting of a modern fairy tale; the alluring pipe dream of this feminist community; and catharsis in the cast of antihero(ine)s’ modes of revenge and self-determination.

Reviewer: Katrina Hedeen | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2025

(2) YA Seventeen-year-old Bina (a self-confessed liar) runs away to Catherine House in Manhattan, where she's confronted with ghosts both real and imagined. Suma's Gothic chiller contains an unreliable narrator; a haunted boardinghouse; complicated female relationships; and a deliciously dark, moody atmosphere delivered in lyrical and evocative prose. Those who persist through duplicitous foreshadowing and dead-end clues will be rewarded with an eerie reveal that folds gracefully into a sweetly melancholic resolution.

Reviewer: Jennifer Hubert Swan | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2018

(1) YA "Bloody Ballerina" Orianna Speerling, fifteen, is convicted of murdering two rival dancers. A month after her sentence begins, all forty-two girls at the detention center die in an unexplained mass killing. Ori's story is revealed through unreliable narrators Violet, Ori's best friend and fellow dancer, and Amber, another inmate. Lyrical, authoritative prose weaves the three girls' disparate lives into a single, spellbinding narrative.

Reviewer: Jessica Tackett MacDonald | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2015

(3) YA Seventeen-year-old Lauren is haunted by missing seventeen-year-old girls. The first one is Abby, who appears in Lauren's van near the summer camp she went missing from. Others follow, until Lauren is consumed by their stories; soon it's clear that Lauren needs saving, too. The evocative first-person voice will linger long after this lyrical and riveting psychological mystery's unsettling resolution.

Reviewer: Rebecca Hachmyer

(4) YA Like most people in town, Chloe does anything her sister Ruby asks. When a tragedy threatens to tear the sisters apart, Chloe learns the deadly lengths her sister will go to in order to protect her. Told through the overly doting eyes of Chloe, the plot sometimes drags. The mystery's resolution and supernatural elements may keep pages turning.

Reviewer: Andrea Curtis

(2) 4-6 Thirteen-year-old Dani sees the world through the lens of noir films that play at her small-town movie theater. That makes it easier to cast her dad as villain and her weepy mom as victim in their divorce; it also allows Dani to see herself in the role of detective, not meddler. Narrator Dani is a believably flawed character with an authentic voice.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2009