Hidden Strings

Tessa, 14, spends every summer helping her parents run their Texas roadside park and RV campground. But this is the first summer since the death of her grandmother, a professional puppeteer. Tessa isn’t sure how to feel about the park’s new puppeteering storyteller, Liza, who likes to tell scary tales, something Nana forbade when she was alive. Despite herself, Tessa finds that she loves Liza’s stories, even if it feels like a betrayal to Nana. Tessa soon befriends visiting twins Gabe and Reya, but when the trio try to include Liza’s aloof foster son, Mason, he rebuffs their advances. Then six-year-old Beth, a camper, vanishes. At the same time, Liza obtains a new puppet that looks exactly like the missing child, prompting Tessa, Gabe, and Reya to investigate Beth’s disappearance and Liza and Mason’s origins. Liza’s stories punctuate the narrative, injecting unique new twists and layers into the novel’s linear progression. Straightforward, easy-to-digest prose ensures that the thrills, while exciting, are never too frightening in Mist’s cohesive hi-lo mystery horror novel. Most characters read as white; the twins have dark hair and dark eyes. Ages 7–9. (Aug.)