A dark academia thriller about who is allowed to break the rules and who suffers the consequences, perfect for fans of Jessica Goodman and Holly Jackson.
The week before Luna's twin sister Solina was supposed to head back for her final semester at Kingswood Academy, an elite boarding school in the Washington mountains, she told Luna she was dropping out. When Luna refused to let her throw away her future, Solina disappeared.
Twelve hours later, she was dead.
Luna knows Solina's death wasn't an accident, even if the police say otherwise. There's a reason Solina didn't want to go back to Kingswood, and Luna knows she'll find the truth there. All she has to do is become Solina. Playing Solina comes easy, but finding answers is far from it. Between the cunning, cruel people Solina called her friends, Luna's budding feelings for her roommate Claudia, and the harsh realization that Solina had dark secrets, getting to the bottom of her sister's murder is more difficult than Luna could have ever anticipated. But when you have nothing left to lose, you're willing to do anything to get what you want. There's no limit to how far Luna will go to avenge her sister-even if she has to burn all of Kingswood to the ground.---from the publisher
288 pages 978-1547616039 Ages 14-17
Keywords: mystery and detective, murder, thriller, boarding school, sisters 14 year old, 15 year old, 16 year old, 17 year old
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"After everything I've done, that I do every day for you- this job, this town, this fucking life.... You don't get to say I don't care."
Got any regrets? Got any words you wish you could take back? So, these are a few of the last words Luna said to her sister, Solina. Her sister who was hitting bottom and needed someone to listen and someone to care. Now, Solina is dead and Luna is stepping up as always but this time she is looking for the person who killed her sister. She is headed to Kingswood Academy as a new student named Stella and she is going to dig and risk until she has what she wants.
Kingswood Academy is exactly what it sounds like. It's a place for some privileged, drug obsessed kids. It's a place where kids treat each other like dirt and come up with some very shall we say creative ways to make some money. Walking the halls and living in the dorms with this group feels like a place that covers you in a very hideous slime that you cannot escape.
What do you do when you figure out who is pretending the most? Who is hiding the darkest side you can imagine? How can you protect yourself against someone who will not reach out a hand to help - or a person who gets hungry and that hunger is all there is no matter who will be consumed?
Dark lives of kids stumbling along in emotionally shattered states, looking to survive via some pretty pills. Dark of lives of kids who have drawers filled with fives and tens crumpled like old tissues - and it isn't enough.
It's hard to imagine a group of kids who have much less humanity left in them than Hunter, Gabe, Poppy, Claudia ... so which one did it?
GRITTY!
Good luck, Stella!
Recommended by: Barb Langridge, abookandahug.com
