The Spiritualists

Grieving young grifters plot revenge in this YA debut from O’Donnell Tubb (Fowl Play), an exuberant historical fantasy set in 1912 New York City. Seventeen-year-old clairvoyant Stella Bodhan ekes out a living reading fortunes and holding seances until “true believer” Pax Princip, 20, recruits her to a nascent bureau of psychics. The bureau’s stated mission is to ease sorrow by facilitating communication with the dead, but that changes after Stella and Pax meet Nirav, a soothsayer who paints his prophetic visions. Stella and Pax each lost a sister in the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, a tragedy for which factory owner Max Blanck was recently exonerated, and one of Nirav’s paintings places Pax and Stella at Blanck’s upcoming victory celebration. Upon learning that Harry Houdini, Arthur Conan Doyle, and the world-famous Hope Diamond will also appear at the event, Pax and his intersectionally diverse band of mystics hatch a plan to infiltrate it and ruin Blanck. Convoluted character backstories make the tale feel a bit overstuffed, but burgeoning romance and rollicking hijinks elicit continued reader engagement. Stella and her dead sister, Daisy, take turns narrating, their tones breezy despite some dark subject matter, including the factory fire and the Titanic’s sinking. Ages 14–up. Agent: Josh Adams, Adams Literary. (June)