Bittersweet in the Hollow by Kate Pearsall
I received a copy from Penguin Group (Penguin Young Readers Group/G.P. Putnam's Sons for Young Readers) through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Linden has grown up in Caball Hollow, a small town with whispers of its paranormal history. Some of those whispers have a smidge of truth mixed in with the rumors, and she would know this better than anyone since she was born into the latest generation of James women and their distinct abilities. When a girl from town goes missing and is found dead, the town’s whispers about the James women grow louder and louder. This disappearance is eerily similar to Linden’s own disappearance the previous summer, and she can’t seem to remember anything about that night. As many in town begin to grow meaner, louder, and bolder, Linden and her sisters lean into their abilities to find out who is behind the murder… or murders.
When I picked up this book, I was not expecting it to be as much of a mystery and thriller that it actually is, and that’s a good thing! I was sucked into the story so fast. We follow Linden, a teenager whose life was turned upside down after she went missing a year before where the story starts. It all began with a silly game of Moth-Winged Man, which is played like a game of Bloody Mary but in the National Forest and without a mirror. The only problem is that Linden can’t remember much about that night, and it’s caused a divide between her and all her friends. She’s just been waiting for the whole thing to finally blow over when a friend of hers, Dahlia, goes missing around the National Forest.
Of course, things only get worse when Linden discovers Dahlia’s body, only she was pulled to it like a magnet. She and her old friend, Cole, keep dancing around each other as she and her sisters try to figure out what happened. Linden doesn’t want to accept Cole’s help given how their friendship broke apart, but it seems that he’s not as weirded out by her as she thought. I think the differences between Linden and Cole investigating and Linden and her sisters investigating were really fun. We see Linden and her sisters using their abilities, such as contacting the spirits, to see what they turn up. However, when she’s working with Cole, we see just two regular teenagers trying to connect the dots. It was really interesting, especially because we get to see how each method of poking around uncovers new information that helps them all move forward. I especially loved seeing Linden and her sisters bond, bicker, and support each other every step of the way.
The mystery itself was excellent. It went so far back and was connected to everyone in so many different ways. It was really interesting to see how the decisions of some of the characters we get to know impacted how the events played out. I also really liked that the central plot leads Linden on a path of discovery about her family and how her ancestors really ended up in town. There are so many twists and turns throughout the story that it’s easy to tell how much planning went into this. It was truly an excellent read. I wasn’t happy about the final chapter, but that was because it went from high stakes to instant closure when I was hoping we’d get more information about the aftermath of the previous chapters. However, since this is the first in a series, I think it’s very likely that we’ll see the aftermath of those events play out in the next novel.
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