All the Pretty Things

January 15, 2020
Seventeen-year-old Ivy Cork unearths some long-simmering secrets when she digs into the recent death of one of her father's employees. With her older brother, Jason, off at college, Ivy is her dad's right-hand woman at Fabuland, the Danville, New Hampshire, amusement park he owns and operates and where most of Ivy's friends work, including her best friend since sixth grade, Morgan Froggett. When Ivy returns to town after a short trip with her mother (her parents are divorced), she's told that Morgan has been missing since the previous night. Recently 19-year-old Ethan Lavoie, a Fabuland employee with Down syndrome, fell to his death from a train trestle while walking home from the park, and Morgan was the one who discovered his body. After Morgan is found in a state of distress sitting atop Fabuland's Ferris wheel, Ivy is the only one who can talk her down. When Ivy asks Morgan how she got up there, Morgan replies cryptically "Ask Ethan." Morgan's strange answer--and her precarious state of mind--inspire Ivy to investigate the events leading up to Ethan's death, all while helping her demanding and mercurial father run Fabuland. The amusement park setting is intriguing; however, the mystery is thin, and the meandering narrative is peppered with two-dimensional characters and clunky dialogue. As a result, the eventful final act, featuring a cascade of weighty revelations (including a #MeToo subplot), doesn't feel earned. A white default is assumed. Underwhelming. (Mystery. 13-18)

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February 1, 2020

Gr 9 Up-Fabuland amusement park is under new management, and it promises to be an unforgettable summer for everyone, starting with the ragtag Fabuland crew, including Ivy Cork, daughter of the owner. After park employee Ethan is discovered dead just outside the park and Ivy's best friend Morgan is found unwell at the top of the Ferris wheel in the middle of the night, Ivy wonders, what more does she not understand about the park staff? Why was Ethan, who had Down syndrome, alone that night when his mother had given him strict directions not to be, and how did he die? Why was Morgan up in the Ferris wheel at night, and why won't she talk to Ivy? Why are Ethan's cousins and fellow employees not answering questions? Why does Jason, Ivy's brother, refuse to come home? Why did Ivy's dad fire someone publicly without letting them speak? Though teens may be frustrated at first to read another story of a teenage girl picking up the slack from a hapless father, this book quickly becomes more than that, taking turns right up to the end. VERDICT This is more than a thriller, filled with mystery and intrigue. It also speaks to the complexity and internalized struggle of guilt, loss, and loving someone you can't trust.-Sarah Voels, Cedar Rapids Public Library, IA

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