Stay Dead

March 1, 2024
Grades 9-12 Senator's daughter Milan, assassin Lenny, and dairy farmer Janie don't seem like they should have anything in common. They don't know one another, but they're connected by a company called Prospect Power. Prospect is a fracking company: it pays Janie for her land before nearly destroying it, and pays Lenny to kill Milan's parents, who were investigating the damage the company was doing to the environment. When the senator's plane goes down, Milan miraculously escapes, going on a multiday survival trek through snowy, dangerous woods. Her mother told her not to trust anyone, before she herself died, and gave her daughter strict instructions to follow. Once Milan escapes the freezing mountain forest, Lenny will be looking for her to finish the job, and Milan is in a race against time and terror to get to her parents' one trusted friend before she ends up dead, too. Milan's trek through the freezing woods shows she's clever, and readers will be intrigued and thrilled to see how it all turns out.

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April 1, 2024
A teenager's survival skills are put to the test--along with her relationships with the people she relies on the most. First, Milan's senator father died in a tragic car accident; Milan escaped with a broken leg. Later, the private plane Milan and her mother were in went down after a bomb exploded in the cargo hold, leaving the 16-year-old stranded in the Cascade Mountains in Oregon. While her mother lay dying in the snow following the crash, she told Milan that whoever killed her father and blew up the plane would now be hunting for her, and that the only person she should trust is Brent Kirkby, Milan's godfather and the founder of the renewable power company where Milan's dad was CEO. Milan ends up being thrown into a deadly plot she never could have imagined. Alongside Milan's third-person perspective, Henry provides two additional views of the events: one from Lenny, the killer assigned to silence Milan's parents and anyone in their vicinity, and Janie, a dairy farmer who's allowed fracking on her land in exchange for the money she needs to support her family. The three plotlines blend seamlessly, with the dramatic initial setup drawing readers into this fast-paced thriller. The action-packed ending feels comparatively abrupt and may leave readers wanting more. Most characters are cued white. A page-turning cat-and-mouse survival story. (Thriller. 13-18)

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

May 3, 2024

Gr 9 Up-Sixteen-year-old Milan has been kicked out of yet another boarding school-her third in the six months since her dad, Senator Jack Mayhew, died in a car accident. Her mom, who has since been elected to her husband's senate seat, has to detour her private plane to pick Milan up in Colorado. As the plane is flying over Oregon's Cascade Mountains on its way to Portland, disaster strikes. An explosion sends the aircraft plummeting towards the snow-covered peaks. Her mother survives just long enough to tell Milan that her dad's death and the plane crash weren't accidents. They were assassinations. Her mom insists that if Milan wants to live she needs to "stay dead." In turns, the novel follows the stories of Milan, Lenny, her would-be assassin, and Janie, a dairy farmer who leased her land to Prospect Power for natural gas extraction (commonly called fracking). The cat-and-mouse between Milan and Lenny adds a thick layer of tension, especially as Lenny closes in on her target. While Janie's story can feel contrived, it does provide necessary background on fracking and things come together nicely as the climax looms. Most characters cue white. VERDICT Perfect for fans of What Beauty There Is by Cory Anderson or Be Not Far From Me by Mindy McGinnis.-Katie Patterson

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