ALA Booklist (Mon Jun 05 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Seventeen-year-old Bronwyn and her parents move to her father's hometown for a year when her grandmother, Lala, goes into hospice. Bronwyn, a competitive swimmer, is stunned to learn that all the pools in town have been drained and locked up. Even the lake is offlimits. Everyone seems to be following a secret set of rules, and her cousin Anais won't explain anything. Bronwyn finally learns that the town is haunted by a vengeful ghost, but when she literally falls into the truth, she is sympathetic rather than terrified. The ghost, Sweetie, is lingering after she was killed in a horrific act of racism, and apart from the tourists that disappear every 10 years, Sweetie only pursues the people who hurt and killed her. Bronwyn and Anais take turns narrating the first-person chapters, giving the reader varied perspectives on the plot. Tirado builds the suspense gradually until Bronwyn learns the truth; after that, the tension skyrockets. Both Bronwyn and Anais are sympathetic characters, and secondary personalities are sharply drawn, with all contributing to the plot.

Kirkus Reviews

Cousins become immersed in their rural town's tragic folklore, uncovering surprising familial connections.Before the start of her junior year, Bronwyn Sawyer's dreams of becoming an Olympic swimmer are put on pause when Lala, her beloved paternal grandfather, has a stroke and lands in hospice and Bronwyn's father temporarily uproots the family from Illinois to his overwhelmingly White Arkansas hometown and into Lala's house. Although the move is only for a year and Anais, Bronwyn's cousin, is also a junior at Hillwoods High School, Bronwyn is disoriented: Although they were once close, the girls haven't seen each other in years; Lala's not getting better; and Bronwyn feels like an outsider. Bronwyn's anxiety increases after learning that the students of Hillwoods, including Anais, follow secretive rituals and uphold superstitions that border on paranoid-all leading back to a curse and the chilling legend of a murdered woman who exacts her revenge through drownings, including in a local lake and pools. Bronwyn's curiosity threatens the town's status quo, and as Anais tries to protect her cousin from both real and paranormal dangers, Bronwyn realizes the ghost story, which involves her family, points to horrifying truths about Hillwoods' bigoted past. Tirado builds palpable suspense, and Bronwyn's and Anais' alternating first-person perspectives highlight their inner resolve. Both teenagers identify as Black; Anais' mom is White, and Lala is from the Dominican Republic.A gripping investigation of injustice and small-town sins that unveils humanity's monstrous potential. (Horror. 14-18)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

A Black high school junior moves to a town haunted by its tragic history in this ambitious paranormal horror novel from Tirado (Burn Down Rise Up). When her paternal grandfather, Lala, falls ill, star swimmer Bronwyn Sawyer moves from Illinois to Hillwoods, a tightly knit town in rural Arkansas. She quickly learns that Hillwoods is ruled by ritual steeped in superstition, and that swimming is forbidden due to a legend involving a murdered woman drowning people at a nearby lake. Bronwyn attempts to rekindle her relationship with her estranged townie cousin Anais, who is Black and queer, but the girls clash over Anais’s increasingly cagey behavior surrounding the supernatural roots of Hillwoods’ history. Anais asserts that her secretiveness is for Bronwyn’s own good and encourages Bronwyn to stop looking into the town’s past. While the mythos behind Hillwoods’ rituals is unique and eerie, the effect is somewhat deflated by a lack of horror-related happenings; grounded sequences depicting a violent hate crime, gun violence, and physical assault make up the bulk of the conflict. Nevertheless, Tirado doles out a chilling ghost story via Bronwyn and Anais’s courageous and urgent dual perspectives. Ages 12–up. Agent: Kristina Pérez, Zeno Agency. (May)

School Library Journal (Sat Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Gr 9 Up— Told in dual points-of-view, this novel features cousins Bronwyn and Anais, both second generation Black Dominicans, who are at odds as soon as Bronwyn and her family move to Arkansas to help with their abuela's end of life care. Anais is a lifelong resident of Hillwood and deeply entrenched in the dark secrets of the town, the rituals of avoiding the ghost that haunts their waking hours and navigating her increasingly complicated relationship with her ex-girlfriend, Hanna. Bronwyn is struggling after leaving her home in Illinois, where she was a competitive swimmer with Olympic dreams, now living in a town where no one is allowed to swim, the pools are drained, and the lake is haunted by a murderous ghost. Rooted in systemic racism and small-town living, Tirado's novel is captivating and raw. The mythology of the story is not always clear, but Tirado's dark style is compelling. VERDICT Recommended for fans of dark YA such as that by Kayla Cottingham.— Sarah Voels