The Bitter End

August 15, 2024
In this closed-circle thriller, a group of teens become stranded on a Colorado mountain during a snowstorm while a killer picks them off. After all their original preferences for the Senior Excursion trips offered by moneyed Warner Prep fall through, a group with a history of bad blood find themselves stuck in a remote cabin with their hard-nosed guidance counselor, Ms. Silva, for an enforced technology-free weekend. The students smuggle in illicit booze, and the very first night, they drug Ms. Silva with Ambien so they can party. By the following morning, someone is dead. A volley of first-person narration alternates among the perspectives of Piper, Willa, and Delaney; third-person interludes focus on each of the other teens--Eden, Camille, Liam, Wyatt, and Declan. The multiple voices make for an intricate setup. Donne also switches the narrative back and forth in time between the present and another night of alcohol- and drug-induced chaos three years earlier--one that resulted in tragedy--further contributing to an unsettled feeling. Many in the large cast of lightly developed characters are image focused, self-involved, and not particularly likable, and this element works in favor of this plot-driven thriller. Readers will be kept guessing until the end about which of the duplicitous, secretive people in question may be the murderer. Most cast members present white, Liam is cued as having some East Asian ancestry, and Piper is asexual. A twisty whodunit filled with unreliable narrators.(Thriller. 14-18)

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October 1, 2024

Gr 8 Up-Elite boarding school Warner Prep has an annual tradition of sending its students to incredible destinations in small groups, but this group of eight students find themselves snowed in on a mandatory "digital detox" retreat in the Colorado mountains. It's a far cry from the social media content opportunity they thought they were headed for, and they're trapped with a killer who may or may not be one of their own. Multiple points of view outline the ways in which readers do not have access to all the relevant information, zeroing in on the perspectives of Piper, a standoffish former gymnast, along with Delaney and Willa, who have their own sets of complicated and emotionally exhausting problems. Ms. Silva, their chaperone, seems questionable and probably unreliable, but to be fair, none of the eight are particularly sympathetic characters. Flashbacks to the events of a party three years ago slowly unspool revealing details, and even the most avid mystery readers will be entertained by the exciting twists and well-hidden clues. This is a refreshing and compelling example of the classic closed-door mystery, with a large yet distinct cast of teens who share a deep and complex history. VERDICT A gripping, fantastically twisty mystery for fans of Karen M. McManus and Holly Jackson.-Allie Stevens

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October 11, 2024
Grades 9-12 Picture it: eight teens and a chaperone on a digital-detox wellness weekend at a chalet atop a Colorado mountain. Their chaperone has confiscated their phones and locked them in a safe, and--right on cue--a blizzard arrives, leaving them snowbound, totally isolated, and phoneless. That's when one of them is found murdered, followed by another murder. And then another. Of course, wondering who's going to be next helps drive the plot at a white-knuckle, page-turning pace. As the teens' number dwindles, the suspense grabs the reader by the throat and doesn't let go till the bitter end. Donne (Pretty Dead Queens, 2022) has done a dandy job of serving up an irresistible mystery with a devious plot that offers the requisite red herrings. Whodunnit? This reader didn't guess the murderer's identity until the end--and was still wrong!

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August 19, 2024
Eight students from elite Los Angeles high school Warner Prep and their counselor arrive at isolated Bear Point Lodge in the Colorado mountains for a device-free weekend as part of their Senior Excursion. With no other visitors and no staff on-site, they settle in for cross-country skiing, binge-drinking, and a strip version of the board game Oh, the Humanity. Chapters that alternate between the teens—but focus primarily on students Piper, Willa, and Delaney—include timestamps that differentiate present-day scenes from flashbacks that occur three years prior at a party in a Malibu mansion. On the mountaintop, it begins to snow, forcing the group to bunker down. But when one of their classmates turns up dead and the power goes out, taking the heat along with it, the Warner Prep teens become embroiled in an epic fight for survival against the elements as well as a killer at-large. Donne (Pretty Dead Queens) injects ample mystery into the narrative via the wealth of shifting
perspectives and timelines, culminating in an intentionally disorienting whodunit. Readers will rejoice in feeling part of the characters’ investigative team in this entertaining thriller that ticks all the right boxes. Piper, Willa, and Delaney read as white. Ages 14–up. Agent: Elana Roth Parker, Laura Dail Literary.