Lovely Dark and Deep

Eighteen-year-old Maria Faith Castillo attends Ellery West, a magical international school off the coast of Washington, where she learns how to control her powerful fire magic after having been recruited from the Philippines. Ellery West is the place Faith feels most at home—until she and best friend Sydney enter the surrounding forest together, and only Faith returns. Suspected of Sydney’s death, Faith is regarded as a social pariah, marked by a red stripe on her uniform that designates her as a student on probation, one who’s too dangerous to attend classes with the rest of her classmates. Her senior year was supposed to be spent preparing for graduation and aiming for entrance into prestigious magical societies; instead, she’s haunted by nightmares of a figure in the forest and sudden bizarre happenings befalling her peers. When she realizes these events may be tied to Sydney’s vanishing, Faith and her fellow Red Stripes must uncover the truth about that night—before the forest comes for Faith, too. Though this dark academia thriller by Bonnin (Stolen City) treads familiar ground, chilling atmosphere sows terror and found family dynamics add emotional weight. Ages 14–up. (Mar.)