Grit

May 15, 2017
In small-town Sasanoa, Maine, everyone knows that 17-year-old Darcy Prentiss has a reputation for being easy, that her cousin Nell is beautiful and a little slow, and that a person can make decent money raking blueberries. And although no one knows what happened the previous summer when a girl disappeared, that doesn’t stop the speculation. Some blame migrant workers who help with the berry harvest, and a local cop thinks Darcy knows something: she was once best friends with the missing girl. There is a lot of plot in French’s debut: a creep Darcy hooked up with is harassing her, she’s being romanced by one of his friends, she and Nell are keeping a secret, and there’s the upcoming Bay Festival Princess pageant that Nell dreams of winning. While the mechanics of the story—secrets and lies, an angry girl who turns out to be loyally doing her best—initially feel overfamiliar, Darcy, her family, and the Maine setting come alive, and the ending lands an effective punch as seemingly disparate threads join up. Ages 14–up. Agent: Alice Tasman, Jean V. Naggar Literary.

Starred review from March 15, 2017
A girl with a reputation grapples with the secrets of last summer.The summer before her senior year, white teen Darcy Prentiss, her sister Mags, and their cognitively disabled cousin Nell harvest blueberries alongside the seasonal Latino migrants in the eastern Maine heat, working hard to save money. But trouble keeps finding Darcy; she has a reputation, and she's used to rumors swirling around her. It's not just rumors about boys, although a white boy named Shea needles endlessly about a mistake she made with him last Fourth of July--there's also Rhiannon, her ex-friend, who went missing last summer. A police officer starts coming around, suspicious of Darcy's every move. Though Darcy doesn't know what happened to Rhiannon, she harbors a different secret about the night the girl went missing, one that could tear apart her family if it got out. Darcy juggles her self-appointed task of defending her cousin, the watchful eye of the law, and Shea's escalating harassment, all while falling for a fellow white blueberry harvester and begrudgingly participating in the town's Bay Festival pageant. She's tough and a fierce protector of what she holds dear, but something has to give. Small-town claustrophobia makes it difficult to define who she is for herself, but rumors, secrets, and even trauma are no match for Darcy's grit. The mysteries of the previous summer weave together beautifully, and the fallout is achingly real. Gorgeously written and helmed by a protagonist with an indelibly fierce heart. (Fiction. 14-18)

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May 1, 2017

Gr 9 Up-Darcy is a raker-she harvests blueberries at the Wardwell Farm alongside migrant farmworkers in Sansoa, ME. It's not true that nothing ever happens in a small town: in this one, "MISSING" posters depicting Darcy's friend Rhiannon hang from every telephone pole on Main Street, and Darcy's cousin Nell thinks she has fallen in love with a teacher, which no one but Darcy knows about. Lacking the means to leave, the teen falls into risky behavior-excessive drinking and hooking up-with the wild Kat; when love interest Jesse pulls her away from that crowd, Darcy doesn't understand why the first thing on his mind is not sex. He's a good guy, and Darcy's mother, Sarah, is also first-rate. She remembers being wild herself and what it cost their family: Darcy's father fell off a high beam to his death before he was 40 because he couldn't resist a dare. Sarah is a good parent and a refreshing change from the stereotypical "bad" mother of a "bad" kid. Rhiannon's disappearance is a mystery: Did she run away a year ago because she, too, wanted to get out of Sansoa, or is she dead? The town thinks the latter, and the protagonist doesn't know for sure, but readers of this excellent teen drama will find out a thing or two before deciding for themselves. This page-turner will hold the interest of mystery fans. VERDICT A strong choice for most collections.-Georgia Christgau, Middle College High School, Long Island City, NY

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 15, 2017
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Feisty Darcy Prentiss is drawn to wild times. She'll grab at any kind of dare, chug any kind of liquor, and kiss any kind of boy just to alleviate the tedium of small-town life. The summer before her senior year, Darcy joins her sister, Mags, and her cousin, Nell, raking blueberries on a local farm. There's plenty of tension in the air, as Darcy keeps an eye on her nemesis, Shea Gaines. Only Darcy and Shea know what actually went down between them, and Darcy's not telling. Then there's renewed interest in Darcy's exbest friend, Rhiannon, missing without a trace since the summer before. Is Darcy keeping mute on something she knows about this as well? And there's something else Darcy is hiding to protect Nell, who is beautiful but simple-minded. Any of these secrets could explode and rip Darcy's life apart, but debut novelist French reveals them slowly, stretching the suspense to the very end. French sets the story in a palpably stifling small town, and her unapologetic main character is resplendent with her untamed sharp tongue, an overdose of stubborn courage, and a taste for hot sex. Keen plotting, evocative writing, and dynamic characterization make French a writer to watch.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2018
It's summer in seventeen-year-old Darcy's small Maine town, and things are complicated. There's the boy she wants and the boy she regrets, both working beside her in the blueberry barrens; her obligations to her beautiful but "a little slow" cousin Nell; and hanging over it all, the mystery of Darcy's missing exbest friend. Complex but patient plotting and evocative prose elevate this moody coming-of-age novel.

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

September 1, 2017
Darcy Celeste Prentiss "lives in the ass-end of nowhere. Rakes berries. Flunks algebra. The end." But that is not the whole story. It is summer in her small Maine town, and things are complicated for seventeen-year-old Darcy. There's the matter of the boy she wants and the boy she regrets, both working beside her in the blueberry barrens. There's the list of "Things We Do" for beautiful Cousin Nell ("even though she's eighteen, in a lot of ways Nell's like a kid; I guess you could call her a little slow"), such as reluctantly participating in the town's beauty pageant with her in spite of stares and scorn. And hanging over it all is the mystery of a missing girl, Darcy's ex-best friend, about which she knows more than she is ready to say. This gripping novel examines the layers of Darcy's reticence about her own past, and explores how burdens borne alone in one small town can lead to risky behavior. Complex but patient plotting and evocative prose elevate this moody coming-of-age novel. rebecca hachmyer

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)