Compulsion

Gr 9 Up—After the death of her mother, and her loving caretaker Mark's losing battle with cancer sends him to hospice, Barrie Watson makes her way from San Francisco to live with her Aunt Pru on her family's estate on Watson Island in South Carolina. Curious about her father, who died in a fire that led to her mother's facial scars and reclusiveness, Barrie is eager to meet relatives on both sides of her family for the first time. What she discovers is far more complicated than the open-armed reunion she'd desired. Watson Island is bound by an old curse that has kept its three founding families, the Watsons, the Beauforts, and the Colesworths, at odds with one another for years. The mysterious Fire Carrier that appears over the river outside of her window each night holds the key to some part of the curse, and the yunwi (spirits that keep watch around Watson Landing) are clearly trying to communicate something to the protagonist. She uses her gift for finding things that have been lost, with some help from dreamy Eight Beaufort, to figure out the secrets that have held her family captive. A little bit Gone with the Wind, a little bit Romeo and Juliet, along with a hearty dose of the paranormal, Boone's debut mixes a Southern gothic setting with fantasy and romance for an engrossing, albeit over-the-top mystery. Although the plot at times becomes overly complicated and the drama is of the hand-to-the-forehead fainting variety, this book will appeal to fans of paranormal and traditional romances.—Joanna Sondheim, Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School, New York City