Erin E. Adams

This is another Edgar award nominee.
Very well done.
Ostensibly a story about a monster in the woods taking the hearts of young black girls, but really more about fear,hatred and racism.
The author does a great job weaving together the folktales with the real life stories of the dead girls to create a nice creepy atmosphere .She deftly creates a trust no one atmosphere as her protagonists suspicions change and grow until the finale
Especially impressive as this is a nominee from the first novel category… (meer)

Someone is killing the black little girls in Johnstown. Every year, on the summer solstice, a black little girl goes missing. Liz, came home for her best friend's wedding. During the reception, she was watching her friend's daughter, Caroline. Caroline ran off and went missing. Liz is determined to investigate what happened with Caroline and all the other missing girls. I had a hard time getting into this book at the beginning. It was a bit slow for me. Towards the middle it picked up and became suspenseful. However, towards the end, it was very confusing. There were so many characters, and it was hard to keep up with who said what and who did what. I did like how Erin tackled racism, sexism, and domestic violence. Her imagery was beautiful as well.… (meer)

This book was imaginative and creepy. It was so compelling and readable that I carved out extra time in my day to read! Packed with social commentary I can see where some people wouldn't vibe with this, but I loved it. This book is just as much about classism as it is about racism.

The pacing was great. The characters had depth, and the author did a great job making the reader understand where they (the characters) were coming from and therefore made the characters seem more real.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone that likes social horror.… (meer)