The Library of Lost Girls

A secluded island finishing school off Canada’s coast harbors sinister secrets in Pipps’s bone-chilling 1893-set debut. Sixteen-year-old Gwendolyn Donovan is devastated when her formerly feisty older sister, Izzy, returns home to Manhattan a vapid socialite with inexplicable memory gaps following a four-year stint at the Delphi School for Girls. When Izzy eagerly and uncharacteristically weds a virtual stranger shortly after her homecoming, Gwen engineers her own conscription to Delphi, desperate to learn what’s been done to Izzy and how to reverse it. At Delphi, Gwen discovers that students are confined year-round to a largely windowless manor, where bookshelves hold off-limits volumes that “symbolize the history of the girls who came before.” Disobedient pupils get sent to the Writing Room for a grueling punishment they promptly forget but that supposedly “pull[s] the evil from [their] veins.” It’s clear that something predatory hides in the shadows, and, upon making friends (and developing a crush), Gwen redoubles her efforts to uncover Delphi’s dark truth. But dangerous forces are determined to stop her. Gwen’s indomitable spirit and candid first-person-present narration enrich this feminist gothic horror, underscoring stakes, heightening suspense, and injecting heart. Though some members of the intersectionally diverse cast lack depth, the twisty plot and creepy trappings command readers’ attention. Ages 12–up. Agent: Caitlin White, Emerald City Literary. (Oct.)