FICTION

The Messengers

by Edward HOGAN
224p. Candlewick. May 2015. Tr $16.99. ISBN 9780763671129; ebk. ISBN 9780763676988. LC 2014939364.
COPY ISBN
RedReviewStarGr 9 Up—After her older brother almost kills someone in a bar fight and disappears, Frances, a promising young artist, starts seeing strange things in her drawings. They materialize out of nowhere after she blacks out. She can't figure out why these images are hazy and imprecise—until she puts one of them under a scanner, and learns with the help of her mentor Peter, another "messenger," that each one reveals where and when someone is going to die. Peter's convinced that they're just a couple of killers, but Frances might have a plan to change all that, using their premonitions to save lives rather than end them, and maybe find her brother, presumed dead, in the process. But do they have the power, or the right, to change fate? That's only one of the weighty questions explored in this clever page-turner.
VERDICT A mash-up of philosophy, mystery, and horror, this haunting YA novel takes on all of these subjects with satisfying results.
Reviewed by Georgia Christgau, Middle College High School, Long Island City, NY
After Frances's troubled brother runs away, she's sent to her aunt's coastal-England home for the summer. There she meets Peter, who helps her understand her strange visions and her identity as a fellow "messenger" of death. As Frances hones her power, readers are offered an interesting examination of the value of human life, death, and fate in this mysterious and haunting novel.
, Feb 01, 2015

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