Snow Drowned

Gr 9 Up–Welcome to Fall Island, MA. There is a saying on the island: if you’re not careful, the snow will get you. Gracie ­Hutchinson knows the saying well, ­having lived on the island her whole life. Fall ­Island’s storms have an uncanny way of causing people to go mad or making people disappear without a trace—just ask Jenna Grodonsky, who disappeared ten years ago. With a hundred-year storm approaching, many have fled to the mainland; however, Gracie is left behind while her mother and sister, Celia, are off island. Gracie and school acquaintance Joseph Wescott happen to come across the scene of a brutal ritualistic murder. Who could have done something so heinous? Was it Sister Francis, the creepy nun Gracie has been warned about, or some other stranger? Following another incident at her own home, Gracie seeks safety at the mysterious Wescott ­Manor. This lavish mansion seems too good to be true, and Gracie quickly begins to worry that the Wescotts and their devotion to an old religion are nothing more than a cult.