Author: Kyrie McCauley
Genre: realistic fiction/magical realism
Similar books: Love and Vandalism by Laurie Boyle Crompton
I Hope You're Listening by Tom Ryan
Rating:
Summary (provided by publisher): Beck and Vivian never could stand each other, but they always tried their best for their mutual friend, Cassie. After the town moves on from Cassie’s murder too fast, Beck and Vivian finally find common ground: vengeance.
They memorialize Cassie by secretly painting murals of her around town, a message to the world that Cassie won’t be forgotten. But Beck and Vivian are keeping secrets, like the third passenger riding in Beck’s VW bus with them—Cassie’s ghost.
When their murals catch the attention of a podcaster covering Cassie’s case, they become the catalyst for a debate that Bell Firearms can no longer ignore. With law enforcement closing in on them, Beck and Vivian hurry to give Cassie the closure she needs—by delivering justice to those responsible for her death.
My opinion: The elements at play here are not especially common in fiction: graffiti and true-crime podcasts. We have a tragedy in a town with an injustice that the town would rather ignore. So Beck and Vivian respond in a big, unavoidable way. With the addition of a podcast picking apart the stories that the people in power are insisting upon and it's a town on the verge. McCaughley is asking us to consider some big questions: gun culture and rights, community responsibility in the face of a tragedy. The heart of the story, though, is much smaller: broken and grieving girls who have things to prove or that they are desperate to escape. Girls who are angry and terrified and utterly trapped by grief. We have a ghost at play who isn't entirely necessary but it works over all.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley
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