The Lonely Dead
About the book
A killer is on the loose, and only one girl has the power to find him. But in this genre-bending YA thriller, she must first manage to avoid becoming a target herself.
For Adele, the dead aren’t really dead. She can see them and even talk to them. But she’s spent years denying her gift. When she encounters her ex best friend Tori in a shallow grave in the woods and realizes that Tori is actually dead -- that gift turns into a curse. Without an alibi, Adele becomes the prime suspect in Tori’s murder. She must work with Tori’s ghost to find the real killer. But what if the killer finds Adele first?
Honors
YALSA Quick Pick
Reviews
For most of her life, Adele has been told that her visions are a result of schizophrenia. But what's the truth? When Adele sees her friend Tori in the woods as she's cutting through the park on her way home, she's confused. Why would Tori be out there in the November cold wearing a halter dress? Adele realizes that, after not taking the pills for her schizophrenia, the visions that used to haunt her before her diagnosis are back. Tori isn't real. After noticing a mound of fresh dirt with a toe sticking out—and a few minutes of digging—Adele finds Tori's body. Although Tori is dead, Adele can see her, just as she can see all the dead, just like her mother and grandmother before her could. But can she use her power to solve the mystery of Tori's murder before the killer strikes again? Henry (Count All Her Bones, 2017, etc.) delivers a compelling thriller that weaves supernatural elements into a topical tapestry of loss, betrayal, and family drama. In an interesting twist, Adele, who can't remember much from the last time she saw Tori, becomes a prime suspect and even doubts her own innocence. This book is set against a high school backdrop with mostly white characters (one African-American friend is introduced, relating Tori's racist behavior). A thriller that manages to be both creepy and fun.
—Kirkus
New York Times best-selling author Henry returns with a new mystery set in Portland, Oregon. Two days after a raucous house party at her childhood friend Tori’s house, high-schooler Adele stumbles on Tori’s body in a nearby park. For years, Adele has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, though she believes the truth is far more complicated: she can see the dead—not as hallucinations, but for real. As investigators try to solve Tori’s murder, so, too, does Adele—with the help of Tori, now a ghost whom she can see and speak with. The truth, though? Adele’s memory after the party is hazy. She doesn’t think it’s possible, but is there a chance the real murderer could be . . . her? And if it isn’t, who is the murderer? Henry’s latest offering is taut and suspenseful, with a hint of the supernatural. Her clear, lucid prose and well-paced action scenes make for a fast, accessible read with high appeal for both the middle- and high-school crowd. Hand to anyone in search of a page-turner. — Jennifer Barnes, Booklist
Gr 8 Up–Adele has lived all her life with a schizophrenic diagnosis. It runs in her family: her mom and grandmother both had it. The dead that she sees and speaks with can’t be real, right? So she believes until the day she sees her friend Tori hanging out in the forest near the tree where someone buried her. Adele informs the police of a body in the woods, and through a complicated turn of events, ends up as one of the prime suspects. Could she have done this to her own friend? She can’t remember. The chapters are in a sequential order with a date and a timestamp. The book is fairly fast-paced and set up quite a few people who could have committed the murder. A character aptly likens this mystery to Murder on the Orient Express. The thriller also touches upon the stigma of mental illness. When Adele stops taking her pills, feels better, and starts seeing the dead things again, she’s really not sure if she is fine or if she has schizophrenia like she’s been told her whole life. People she has known forever who know her diagnosis are also mistrustful of her, which adds an interesting element to the plot. [does she go back to her medication, though?] VERDICT A great addition to libraries looking for more murder mystery for teens.–Kristin Joy Anderson, Lewis University, Romeoville, IL, School Library Journal
Told on brand in April Henry fashion with short, cliff-hanger chapters, this is another one to add to the collection of fast-paced thrillers like Henry’s previous books—YALSA
Inspiration
Whenever I’m not traveling, I run a four-mile route in my neighborhood three or four times a week. I’ve been running this same route for years. One day I started thinking about what it would be like if I could see the dead right where they were buried. I imagined running past the ghosts of the dogs and cats and parakeets that their owners had buried in the yards over the years. With each run, I took the thought a little further.
What would happen, for example, if a person with such a gift were to go to a cemetery? I grew up next to an old cemetery, so I pictured myself walking among the leaning headstones. The dead, I figured, would be lonely and eager to talk. But en masse, they would also be overwhelming.
On another run, I wondered what would happen if someone with the gift saw the spirit of a dead person in an unexpected place. Killers have been known to bury bodies in a number of locations, including their own yards. What if one day that person saw a girl? A girl who did not know at first that she was dead?
The person with the gift, I decided, was a girl named Adele. The dead girl was named Tori, and she had once been Adele’s best friend.
I had to decide what the rules were in this world I was creating, and whether they echoed common tropes. Could spirits go through walls? Was it true that you were stuck for eternity wearing whatever you died in? And if there were ghosts, what did that mean about heaven or hell?
I’m not sure that I believe in ghosts, but I do believe things are more than they appear, that there is a kind of magic working in the world that we don’t understand.
My ninth-great-grandfather, William Meeker, was charged with witchcraft in 1656, but luckily for me (and him), he was acquitted.
My mother, his direct descendant, occasionally knew things she could not or should not have been able to know. This is sometimes called second sight. I assume she had this ability when she was young, because she used to talk about how her mother (my grandmother) wanted my mom to be a medium. My mom shied away from that, but she occasionally shared things she knew or had known years before they happened, like the first name of my brother’s future wife. When I bought a used car, my mom told me what color it was. Doubting her ability, I told her to find the same color in a magazine, rip out a swatch, and mail it to me. She did, and it matched perfectly. There are still a few things she said would happen to me (she died in 2013) that I’m curious to see whether they’ll come true.
A killer is on the loose, and only one girl has the power to find him. But in this genre-bending YA thriller, she must first manage to avoid becoming a target herself.
For Adele, the dead aren’t really dead. She can see them and even talk to them. But she’s spent years denying her gift. When she encounters her ex best friend Tori in a shallow grave in the woods and realizes that Tori is actually dead -- that gift turns into a curse. Without an alibi, Adele becomes the prime suspect in Tori’s murder. She must work with Tori’s ghost to find the real killer. But what if the killer finds Adele first?
Honors
YALSA Quick Pick
Reviews
For most of her life, Adele has been told that her visions are a result of schizophrenia. But what's the truth? When Adele sees her friend Tori in the woods as she's cutting through the park on her way home, she's confused. Why would Tori be out there in the November cold wearing a halter dress? Adele realizes that, after not taking the pills for her schizophrenia, the visions that used to haunt her before her diagnosis are back. Tori isn't real. After noticing a mound of fresh dirt with a toe sticking out—and a few minutes of digging—Adele finds Tori's body. Although Tori is dead, Adele can see her, just as she can see all the dead, just like her mother and grandmother before her could. But can she use her power to solve the mystery of Tori's murder before the killer strikes again? Henry (Count All Her Bones, 2017, etc.) delivers a compelling thriller that weaves supernatural elements into a topical tapestry of loss, betrayal, and family drama. In an interesting twist, Adele, who can't remember much from the last time she saw Tori, becomes a prime suspect and even doubts her own innocence. This book is set against a high school backdrop with mostly white characters (one African-American friend is introduced, relating Tori's racist behavior). A thriller that manages to be both creepy and fun.
—Kirkus
New York Times best-selling author Henry returns with a new mystery set in Portland, Oregon. Two days after a raucous house party at her childhood friend Tori’s house, high-schooler Adele stumbles on Tori’s body in a nearby park. For years, Adele has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, though she believes the truth is far more complicated: she can see the dead—not as hallucinations, but for real. As investigators try to solve Tori’s murder, so, too, does Adele—with the help of Tori, now a ghost whom she can see and speak with. The truth, though? Adele’s memory after the party is hazy. She doesn’t think it’s possible, but is there a chance the real murderer could be . . . her? And if it isn’t, who is the murderer? Henry’s latest offering is taut and suspenseful, with a hint of the supernatural. Her clear, lucid prose and well-paced action scenes make for a fast, accessible read with high appeal for both the middle- and high-school crowd. Hand to anyone in search of a page-turner. — Jennifer Barnes, Booklist
Gr 8 Up–Adele has lived all her life with a schizophrenic diagnosis. It runs in her family: her mom and grandmother both had it. The dead that she sees and speaks with can’t be real, right? So she believes until the day she sees her friend Tori hanging out in the forest near the tree where someone buried her. Adele informs the police of a body in the woods, and through a complicated turn of events, ends up as one of the prime suspects. Could she have done this to her own friend? She can’t remember. The chapters are in a sequential order with a date and a timestamp. The book is fairly fast-paced and set up quite a few people who could have committed the murder. A character aptly likens this mystery to Murder on the Orient Express. The thriller also touches upon the stigma of mental illness. When Adele stops taking her pills, feels better, and starts seeing the dead things again, she’s really not sure if she is fine or if she has schizophrenia like she’s been told her whole life. People she has known forever who know her diagnosis are also mistrustful of her, which adds an interesting element to the plot. [does she go back to her medication, though?] VERDICT A great addition to libraries looking for more murder mystery for teens.–Kristin Joy Anderson, Lewis University, Romeoville, IL, School Library Journal
Told on brand in April Henry fashion with short, cliff-hanger chapters, this is another one to add to the collection of fast-paced thrillers like Henry’s previous books—YALSA
Inspiration
Whenever I’m not traveling, I run a four-mile route in my neighborhood three or four times a week. I’ve been running this same route for years. One day I started thinking about what it would be like if I could see the dead right where they were buried. I imagined running past the ghosts of the dogs and cats and parakeets that their owners had buried in the yards over the years. With each run, I took the thought a little further.
What would happen, for example, if a person with such a gift were to go to a cemetery? I grew up next to an old cemetery, so I pictured myself walking among the leaning headstones. The dead, I figured, would be lonely and eager to talk. But en masse, they would also be overwhelming.
On another run, I wondered what would happen if someone with the gift saw the spirit of a dead person in an unexpected place. Killers have been known to bury bodies in a number of locations, including their own yards. What if one day that person saw a girl? A girl who did not know at first that she was dead?
The person with the gift, I decided, was a girl named Adele. The dead girl was named Tori, and she had once been Adele’s best friend.
I had to decide what the rules were in this world I was creating, and whether they echoed common tropes. Could spirits go through walls? Was it true that you were stuck for eternity wearing whatever you died in? And if there were ghosts, what did that mean about heaven or hell?
I’m not sure that I believe in ghosts, but I do believe things are more than they appear, that there is a kind of magic working in the world that we don’t understand.
My ninth-great-grandfather, William Meeker, was charged with witchcraft in 1656, but luckily for me (and him), he was acquitted.
My mother, his direct descendant, occasionally knew things she could not or should not have been able to know. This is sometimes called second sight. I assume she had this ability when she was young, because she used to talk about how her mother (my grandmother) wanted my mom to be a medium. My mom shied away from that, but she occasionally shared things she knew or had known years before they happened, like the first name of my brother’s future wife. When I bought a used car, my mom told me what color it was. Doubting her ability, I told her to find the same color in a magazine, rip out a swatch, and mail it to me. She did, and it matched perfectly. There are still a few things she said would happen to me (she died in 2013) that I’m curious to see whether they’ll come true.