مقتطفات-

• From the cover ONE
  
  “What do you think happened to your mother?”
  
  The word sounded wrong to Bel when he said it. Mother. Unnatural. Not quite as bad as Mom. That one pushed between her lips, misshapen and mad, like a bloated slug finally breaking free, splatting there on the floor for everyone to stare at. Because everyone would, everyone always did. The word didn’t belong in her mouth, so Bel didn’t say it, not if she could help it. At least there was a coldness to mother, a sense of distance.
  
  “It’s OK, please take your time,” Ramsey said, the vowels clipped and exposed.
  
  Bel looked across at him, avoiding the camera. Lines of concern crisscrossed his black skin, pulling around his eyes as they fixed on Bel’s, because she was already taking her time, too much, more than she had in the pre-­interviews the past few days. He reached up to scratch his temple, right where his dark coiled hair faded out above his ears. Ramsey Lee: filmmaker, director, from South London—­ a whole world away, and yet here he was in Gorham, New Hampshire, sitting across from her.
  
  Ramsey cleared his throat.
  
  “Um . . . ,” Bel began, choking on that slug. “I don’t know.”
  
  Ramsey sat back, his chair creaking, and Bel knew from the flicker of disappointment in his face that she was doing a bad job. Worse. It must have been the camera. The camera changed things, the permanence of it. One day thousands of people would watch this, separated from her only by the glass of their television screens. They would analyze every word she said, every pause she took, and have something to say about it. They’d study her face: her warm white skin and the flush of her cheeks, her sharp chin that sharpened more when she spoke and especially when she smiled, her short honey-­blond hair, her round gray-­blue eyes. Doesn’t she look just like Rachel did, they’d say, those people beyond the television screen. Bel thought she looked more like her dad, actually. Thanks, though.
  
  “Sorry,” Bel added, pressing her eyelids together, bright orange patches where the three softbox lights glared at her. She just had to get through this documentary, pretend to not be hating every second, talk about Rachel, then life could go back to normal, back to not talking about Rachel.
  
  Ramsey shook his head, a smile breaking through.
  
  “Don’t worry,” he said. “It’s a difficult question.”
  
  It wasn’t, though, not really. And the answer wasn’t difficult either. Bel really didn’t know what had happened to her. No one did. That was the point of all this.
  
  “I think she was—­”
  
  Someone stumbled behind the camera, tripping on a cable that ripped out of the wall. One of the lights flickered and died, swaying on its rickety leg. A hand reached out to grab it before it fell, righting it.
  
  “Oh shit. Sorry, Rams,” the tripper said, chasing the loose wire back to the outlet. Now that the light was out, Bel could see him properly for the first time. She couldn’t say she’d noticed him before, when Ramsey had introduced the crew, too dazzled by the lights and the camera. He must have been the youngest of the four documentary crew members, couldn’t be much older than her. And he was, just maybe, the most ridiculous person Bel had ever seen. He had shoulder-­length brown hair that fell in thick curls, pushed off to one side of his pale face, full of angles and shadows. He wore flared...

المراجعات-

• 

  Starred review from February 5, 2024
  Jackson (Five Survive) delivers a commanding performance in this smart, meticulously crafted thriller. When Annabel “Bel” Price was 22 months old, she was left alone in the back seat of her mother’s car, with the adult nowhere to be found. Sixteen years later, the prickly 18-year-old’s mother is still missing, and Bel’s big questions—Was she abandoned? Was her mother abducted?—have never been answered. The arrival of a film crew, which is working with the Price family to record a documentary about the mystery, exacerbates unhealed wounds and dredges up long-buried memories and old conspiracies. Bel is convinced that her mother ran away; the town believes that Bel’s father killed her, even though he was exonerated; and Bel’s paternal grandfather, who has dementia, doesn’t remember anything. It’s only when Bel’s mother suddenly reappears that the real mystery begins. Via Bel’s acerbic multilayered first-person narration, Jackson keeps the intricate plot—punctuated with twist after shocking twist—firmly in hand, doling out clues that will have readers guessing right along with the characters. The protagonists read as white. Ages 14–up. Agent: Sam Copeland, RCW Literary.

• Sophie Amoss narrates this young adult novel about the Price family, whose matriarch, Rachel, mysteriously disappeared 16 years ago. During the making of a documentary about the disappearance, Rachel just as mysteriously reappears, looking haggard and telling an unbelievable story. Her 18-year-old daughter, Bel, bitter and detached, with no memory of her mother, has questions that Rachel cannot satisfactorily answer. As Bel begins her own investigation, family secrets and betrayals are unearthed. Amoss captures the anger and angst of a teenager who is dealing with change and uncertainty. Amoss portrays Rachel as sly and secretive, keeping listeners guessing at the truth about her. What is Rachel hiding, and who can be trusted? Listeners will wait in excruciating anticipation for the final reveal. L.M.G. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

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