A Deadly Inheritance

Written by Kelley Armstrong

Tundra Books

978-1-77488-803-2 

424 pp.

Ages 14+

March 2026 

 

Understanding where you fit in the world is rare here. Embracing it is even rarer. (pg. 45)  

For seventeen-year-old Liliana Green, getting by since her mother died recently is everything to her. That and avoiding the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services. She works two part-time jobs, works hard at school to get that full scholarship to college in September, and she sells stuff to make rent. When lawyer Cecilia Robbins appears on her doorstep and announces that Liliana to be the grandchild of the billionaire Chamberlains, Liliana's financial troubles appear to be over. She's whisked away to Westdale, her mother's alma mater and a school that only admits the wealthiest of students. 

 

Of course Liliana has lots of questions, especially why her mother never went to her parents for help, but once she's at Westdale, Lili just has more questions. She may be enjoying the perks of being part of a billionaire family—". . . I'll enjoy what I can, while I can" (pg. 20)—but she still has to navigate meeting new peers who see her as the new Chamberlain girl. She becomes friendly with Maddox Moreno, son of a tech wizard, and Theo Dubois, son of an actor and a director, although the two boys have a cool relationship with each other. And Lili is invited to join Allegra Khan, Polly Reeves, and Isolde Brandt in the Lilith society, one of four societies on campus. 

Soon Lili is being recruited to join the race for that year's Optima, a prestigious competition that would win her a place in an elite networking group outside the school. Even before she has agreed, she's targeted and told to watch herself. Would her competitors really try to eliminate her? But Lili has another mystery to solve when she learns her mother was the Dux (leader) of the Liliths, and ran away with her father before she graduated. Why did they run away? What does it have to do with the death of a scholarship student? And what secrets is Westdale keeping?

 

Like many boarding schools, Westdale is a microcosm of good and bad and ugly. There is a clear class structure and distinct peer groups. There are secrets from the past and mysteries from the present. There are rules to be broken and a system to work in. And there is danger hiding everywhere. Kelley Armstrong takes us into a school of the fabulously wealthy and lets us watch as the students form alliances and friends, tread cautiously around others, and do what they can to safeguard themselves and support those for whom they care. But no one is ever safe. So, as we learn more about the secrets behind Liliana's parents, Rose (Rosalyn) Chamberlain and Will Green, and several suspicious deaths, including that of Maddox's sister and that of a friend of Rosalyn's, Kelley Armstrong twists and turns the reader into believing no one is to be trusted. She gives us all the clues but she cleverly tangles us into seeing connections where there are none and ignoring key players because they seem inconsequential. Still, even if you pay attention, Kelley Armstrong will surprise you, both with her ending and the solution to the mystery. And there's nothing better than the unraveling and intertwining of plot threads leading to a refreshing and a gratifying denouement, which is what you always get with Kelley Armstrong's suspenseful reads.

The Chandler Legacies

Written by Abdi Nazemian

Balzer & Bray (HarperCollins)

978-1-06-303932-2

336 pp.

Ages 13+

February 2022

 

Through the voices of fourth-formers (sophomores) Beth Kramer, Sarah Brunson and Ramin Golafshar and sixth-formers (seniors) Amanda Spencer and Freddy Bello, readers will enter Chandler Academy in Connecticut, a microcosm of concentrated reality. All the good and bad of the outside world is focalized in that elite boarding school and readers are invited to view it from the multi-faceted perspectives of the story's protagonists.

The year is 1999 and Ramin is entering Chandler for his first time. He may have left behind his great love and the danger of being gay in Iran but he is now subjected to a new kind of homophobia and bullying. However, he finds a place of belonging within the Circle, an exclusive writing group under the guidance of Professor Hattie Douglas. Also invited into this group are Brunson, a driven young woman who writes for the newspaper, the Chandler Legacy; Beth, Brunson's former roommate, who is dealing with anxiety; wealthy, popular, and beautiful actor Spence; and athlete Freddy. Through their writing and Circle meetings, the five become friends and establish a support system that they may not have realized they needed. Their writing may allow them to explore who they are...

 

...even fiction is non-fiction, because it reflects the author's truth. (pg. 76)

 

...but it reveals what the others have been experiencing. And some of that is not good. In fact, some of it is abusive.

 

How these five young people, amidst their peers, teachers and families–good, bad and innocuous–grow into the extraordinary people of Abdi Nazemian's prologue and epilogue of 2008 is the legacy of their time together as Circle members at Chandler. Their legacy is what they learned, what they achieved and what they conquered. They are the Chandler legacies and these are legacies of which they should be enormously proud.

Author Abdi Nazemian jumped on the YA CanLit scene with Like a Love Story (2019), garnering much attention, including a White Pine nomination and selection as a Stonewall Honor Book. With The Chandler Legacies, he has again given voice to a diverse group of young people and exposed their vulnerabilities and strengths in dealing with the challenges of coming of age, including their sexualities, mental health, bullying, friendship, family and self-expression. Beth, Spence, Freddy, Brunson and Ramin each have their own stories, yet they come together to share one as students at Chandler and as young people who are trying to find their ways in a world that is not always just or easy. While there is an introductory comment from the author that some aspects of the story may be triggering–resources are provided if the reader chooses to seek outside help–Abdi Nazemian writes with sensitivity and without the motive of shocking readers. In fact, beyond sensitivity, he addresses the challenges the students are experiencing with compassion, leading them and the reader to understanding and grace.

 

There is a rawness to The Chandler Legacies which is not unlike the experiences endured by Ramin, Beth, Brunson, Spence and Freddy. They struggle with becoming the people they are destined to become, as they question, argue, learn and care. And still they thrive in their world within Chandler so that their legacy is one of hope and courage to do what's right for themselves and others.

The Momentous Expiration of Tremmy Sinclair

Written by Michael F. Stewart

The Publishing House

978-1-989133-05-7

259 pp.

Ages 13+

June 2021

 I can do anything at all, but now there's not time. How do you live a lifetime in four months? (pg. 4)

Tremendous Sinclair, talented and privileged son of wealthy parents, has been dealing with brain cancer over the summer before his senior year, keeping his diagnosis, treatments and prognosis from his best friend Jenkins and everyone at Amborough Private School. His parents, desperate to give him anything, including a miracle, are taking him on a first-class trip around the world. That is, until Tremmy decides that what he really wants is to return to school, and live out what little time he has being the head boy, a drone war general, captain of the swim team and his best self. Unfortunately, Tremmy soon realizes that...

Nothing can be truly fantastic anymore. Now fantastic is coated in a prickly sweat of impending doom. (pg. 42)

Still he returns to school. What he had hoped would be a stellar few months of accomplishments and camaraderie soon becomes something different. His symptoms slowly begin to affect his daily life, though he tries to cover it up. But when his medical circumstances are leaked to all, the school's administration does whatever it can to get him out, not wanting a student's death at school on their hands. And his friends? Audra wants to run a social experiment and record photographs of his dying. Girlfriends Jodie and Mona come out of the woodwork and make him think about his relationships. Margot, scholarship student and head girl prefect, supports him and makes him consider how he needs to fight. As for Jenkins? He may be pompous, privileged, self-absorbed, and perhaps criminal–Tremmy has to get him out of at least one bad situation–but Tremmy may need him because his attempts to procure medical or parental assistance in dying is not happening.

With each day, and those days are counted down in chapter headings that record "days to demise," Tremmy tries to enlighten his classmates about death and dying, knowing it will help him as much as them. 

Silence is when I am most alone. That's when the shadows of death's in the room. (pg. 235)

But how do you convince anyone to listen when you're stripped of your achievements, squirreled away in an unused room, growing weaker and less able, and your best friend is either not talking to you or doing things you're starting to see as questionable? Tremmy has more than one fight on his hands, and whether he wins any of them may not be up to him.

Michael F. Stewart’s latest young adult novel–earlier ones include Heart Sister, Counting Wolves and Assured Destruction–may ask readers to think about what a good death is but more importantly it reminds us that it only comes with living a life that is of value. And that value does not comes from wealth or bountiful experiences, both of which Tremmy has available to him.  It’s value that comes from meaning.

 ...it's at the point of discomfort where life gets important. (pg. 149)

From the onset of The Momentous Expiration of Tremmy Sinclair, it's clear that Tremmy's circle of friends and family are highly advantaged, wealthy beyond imagination. 24K gold-trimmed double-screened cell phones with firefly companion drones. Caviar served in the cafeteria. Selling of transcripts of one teacher's lectures for $10,000. These kids and their families have gobs of money. But it won't save Tremmy from death or others from poor decisions and bad behaviour. Michael F. Stewart may take us into their world but he doesn't leave us there. We're like the drones the kids fight with, watching Tremmy and his classmates, the school's administration and his parents, and others who flit into their lives. We see the calamities and the injustices, the insights and the fears. And we see the resolution, for Tremmy, at least. Surprisingly, that resolution brings both tears and cheers. Tremmy couldn't change the life he'd lived prior to his diagnosis but he sure added value to it with his death. In that way, Tremendous Sinclair's expiration is truly momentous, as is Michael F. Stewart's telling of it.

One Year at Ellsmere

Written and illustrated by Faith Erin Hicks

First Second

978-1-250-21910-7

176 pp.

Ages 10-14

July 2020
Reviewed from advance reader's edition

Thirteen-year-old Juniper is pleased for the opportunity to attend private school Ellsmere Academy for Girls, though being identified as its first scholarship student does pose some problems. Despite the fact that she tells her roommate Cassie that she's there to learn and not make friends, it soon becomes clear that the two will need to become allies to survive the year at Ellsmere.

It's like Downton Abbey meets Lord of the Flies, in plaid skirts and navy sweaters. (pg. 79)

From One Year at Ellsmere by Faith Erin Hicks

From their first assembly, it's evident that Cassie wants to make friends, even with the arrogant and privileged Emily, who loves to call others hurtful names. But when Juniper stands up to Emily, asking her what made her so broken that she feels compelled to pick on others, she makes an enemy of a girl who can and does make life very difficult for the new Ellsmere student.

From One Year at Ellsmere by Faith Erin Hicks

As Juniper works hard, determined to do well so that she can fulfill her dream of becoming a doctor, Cassie completes her schoolwork with little enthusiasm. That is, until Juniper encourages Cassie to write a personal story for a competition and she wins. Emily is not pleased with anything that disrupts her status at the top and finds ways to bully the girls to re-establish her dominance.  When she threatens to destroy the only memento Juniper has of her late father, Juniper punches her in the nose and is put on probation. Worse yet, Emily plays herself as benevolent, asking that Juniper not be expelled, all with the intent to assert herself and crush Juniper further.

From One Year at Ellsmere by Faith Erin Hicks

But after Cassie discovers Emily's plot to get Juniper expelled, a showdown in the forest between the three girls reveals a fantastic forest element that turns things around for Juniper and Cassie and puts Emily firmly where she belongs.

Though Faith Erin Hicks has been honoured with a White Pine nomination for her YA novel Comics Will Break Your Heart, it's her graphic novels for which she is best known. From Bigfoot Boy to Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Nameless City, Faith Erin Hicks tells stories of fantastic worlds of ancient civilizations, superheroes and fierce characters. Though One Year at Ellsmere may appear as realistic fiction based in a boarding school, rife with bullying, schoolwork and fitting in, Faith Erin Hicks slips in a little bit of the supernatural to keep things interesting and let us know that there's always something more than meets the eye.  

I'm so glad that Faith Erin Hicks has reimagined her earlier The War at Ellsmere (SLG Publishing, 2008) into One Year at Ellsmere, especially as all her characters seem more familiar now, like kids and adults you'd see in a school. There are the mean girls and the strict administrators, the friendly and the aloof, those who struggle and those who are high achievers. There are even hard-working parents supportive of their kids and those who overvalue their children. Faith Erin Hicks's illustrations embed readers in a boarding school atmosphere of austere dorm rooms, uniforms and conventional studies while showing them a world that is both familiar and foreign, where a mythical creature can come to the defense of a girl and where the bully doesn't win.

The Mystery of the Black Hollow Lane (Order of Black Hollow Lane, Book 1)

Written by Julia Nobel

Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

978-1-4926-6464-2

320 pp.

Ages 8-14

2019

For a parenting guru, Emmy Willick’s mom seems to relinquish much of her responsibilities, telling her daughter that she always knows what’s best for her (does she?) when sending her an English boarding school, Wellsworth.  But before Emmy heads out, she uncovers a metal box with 12 medallions with a note from her father, Thomas Allyn, who’d left when Emmy was three. As her parents met in England, Emmy is determined to use the opportunity at Wellsworth to learn as much about him as she can.

At Wellsworth, she meets Lola Boyd, her housemistress’s daughter, and Jack Galt with whom she becomes fast friends. Because she has had no schooling in Latin, she is encouraged by Madam Boyd to join the Latin Society, a club headed by Master Larraby.  When the trio begin to study the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and learn that Wellsworth Hall used to be Blacehol Abbey, Emmy discovers a secret society called the Order of Black Hollow Lane using the same symbol as the Latin Society, a skull with a cross and dagger. But Jack tries to dissuade her against learning about the Order to which his father and older brothers, as well as Lola’s nasty cousin Brynn, belong and which Jack believes is dangerous.

After being slipped several old messages ostensibly from the files of Thomas Allyn, Emmy realizes that her father, the school and the Order of Black Hollow Lane are all tied together. But what Emmy doesn’t know is how and why.

Boarding schools are a favourite location to set mysteries, just as English countryside villages are home to so many cozies. Schools like Wellsworth are ripe with a myriad of characters, good and bad and some misunderstood, from among their student and adult populations. There are roomies, classmates, teachers, administrators, custodians and more in these enclaves of apparent decorum. Their relationships are a tangled web of support, bullying, distrust, affection and malevolence. For Emmy, whose self-absorbed mother loves to dictate but not engage and without a father present in her life, Wellsworth offers her an opportunity to find family. She may be driven to find her father and have him become part of her life, if she can, but with Lola and Jack and a gaggle of other characters who may be of assistance in their own ways, Emmy is able to make a new life and solve a mystery or two.

•••••••

Tomorrow I review The Secret of White Stone Gate, Book 2 in the Order of Black Hollow Lane series.

What We Hide

by Marthe Jocelyn
Tundra Books
978-1-77049-642-2
275 pp.
Ages 14+
May, 2014

I can't imagine a freer time than the 1960's and early 1970's when there were calls for "Love, Not War", when peace symbols and drugs were everywhere, and when contraception helped support the idea of free love.  Strangely, the young people in What We Hide should be immersed in all that liberating freedom, standing up for their views, and not taking any directions from the establishment.  Yet these teens have their heads and hearts in two worlds: the traditional, even old-fashioned world more typical of  their parents and school administrators, and the experimenting, liberal explorations of their peers.  What they choose to hide is all rooted in their conflicting ideas of right and wrong, wants and needs, smart and ignorant, and childish and mature.

To help her older brother evade the draft for the Vietnam War (sadly something his best friend Matt chose not to do), Jenn accompanies Tom to England where he will attend Sheffield University and she Illington Hall, a boarding school, nearby.  The new milieu allows Jenn to become the American Jenny with the (imaginary) boyfriend Matt who is fighting in Vietnam.  Except for occasionally hearing from Tom who is heavily into smoking weed and avoiding contacting Matt, Jenny's world is Illington Hall, her new friends and misdirecting them to maintain her story.  But Jenny is just one of the narrators in What We Hide who reveal in the text that which they won't share elsewhere.

There's Robbie a local boy who knows he's gay but keeps it from everyone, especially his 18-year-old brother Simon, whose sexual exploits have already made him a father and has him engaged to marry another pregnant girl.  Robbie meets a boy from the boarding school, Luke, who never knew he was gay and, although smitten with Robbie, is still trying to discover whether he might like girls if he just found the right one. Luke and sister Kirsten come from a seemingly perfect family, or so classmate Penelope believes, until she finagles an invitation from them for the weekend.  And Penelope, whose aggressive attitude suggests that she'd have sex with anyone and it wouldn't be a big deal, has a big secret about her mother that she won't share.  Another classmate, Percy, too has a secret about his parent but one that could bring him popularity or shame.

I haven't even mentioned Nico, who is the school's heart throb and whose intimacy with his girlfriend Sarah is well known. But now that Sarah has returned home to Toronto, who is in Nico's line of sight? Jenny? Oona, Sarah's best friend?  What about Brenda, the sister of the mother of Simon's son?  She's a local but she attends Illington Hall as a day student, always straddling the line between the unrefined life of a local and the ambitious scholarship of her boarding school.

How Marthe Jocelyn, who could not have been old enough to have experienced this era, could accurately portray the thoughts and actions of Jenny, Robbie, Luke, Penelope and all their peers is astounding to me.  She has covered the full gamut from naive to promiscuous (though it is the time of free love, right?) and brash to reserved, but the confusion that seems to predominate the teen years is always there, regardless of background, wealth, family, friends, or intelligence.  These young people are all trying to find out who they are, wanting to be someone: a cherished son, a first love, a supportive sister, a sympathetic friend.  But wanting to be someone is not enough  to make it happen.

"Maybe I'd been hoping for a miracle, but I thought I'd be someone else by now.  I thought at least that I'd be . . . someone." (pg. 258)

But like all stories based on secrets or lies (misdirections, as Percy calls them), the truth will eventually be uncovered, for good or bad. Marthe Jocelyn makes it clear that the drama swirling around all these hidden truths in What We Hide is what takes the energies of these young people.  Sadly they don't know that the issues which are consuming them are real and significant as they are but creating dramas enfold these concerns just compounds them.  Some come to that realization more swiftly than others but still with heartache (Penelope recognizes that, "There is only me to blame for where I am.  There is only me." [pg. 197])

While I feel for these young people, wishing that they could trip through their teen years with more spirit and less angst, Marthe Jocelyn makes it clear that they will deal as they can, and things will work out or not, but they have the capacity to learn more about themselves through these hardships, regardless what they hide.