Dark and Shallow Lies

Starred review from August 2, 2021
Green-eyed Grey, 17, returns every summer to La Cachette, La., the “Psychic Capital of the World,” to help run her grandmother’s spiritualist bookstore. One of 10 Summer Children born in one year, most assumed white, Grey is determined to uncover what happened to best friend and fellow Summer Child Elora, who’s been missing for several months. Though many suspect Dempsey Fontenot, believed to have killed four-year-old twins and Summer Children Ember and Orli years ago, others think a rougarou, or werewolf, is to blame. When a mysterious blue-eyed stranger begins asking questions about the twins’ suspected killer, Grey’s latent psychic abilities activate—but though she experiences flashes through Elora’s eyes, she cannot decode them, or understand why the other Summer Children want her to leave. With a hurricane barreling toward La Cachette, Grey’s investigation into Elora’s disappearance soon turns deadly. Infused with Creole and Cajun legends and language, Myers Sain’s dreamy prose conjures a mythical Southern Gothic atmosphere, mixing violence with a Byronic characterization of Elora’s stepbrother Hart. Taut pacing builds sustained terror on the page with each successive suspect in this formidable debut. Ages 14–up.