Kotecki, Nathan. The Suburban Strange.

Kotecki, Nathan.  The Suburban Strange.  Houghton Mifflin  349p  $16.99  978-0-547-72996-1        2012  hs  VG-BNS  Mystery/Detective

Celia Balaustine is a new transfer to Suburban High, where she is befriended by a mysterious group of students called the Rosary.  Plentiful references to contemporary music and art are incorporated into Celia’s orientation to the exclusive Rosary group.  As she embarks on a journey of self-discovery and forges new relationships, Celia becomes aware of a supernatural conflict between good and evil -- the Kind and the Unkind.  When her lab partner becomes a fatality as a result of the curse that has been cast on girls who are turning sixteen, Celia must confront the malicious Unkind who are responsible for the girl’s death.

Two elements in this novel will rivet the reader’s attention and compel him or her to read Nathan Kotecki’s debut novel.  The first one is the Rosary; readers will devour the details about what it is like to be an insider in an exclusive coterie that is more clever, more edgy, more attractive, and more sophisticated than any other social group in a school.  The references to music, art, and literature will stretch readers’ horizons as they (inevitably) explore and sample new possibilities that are woven into the story.  Although storytelling would generally have the Rosary dabbling in the supernatural, instead this is a group of cognoscenti teens pushing their intellectual and creative boundaries to the limit.  Readers will also long to find a chic haven like the Diaboliques.  Secondly, every intellectual outcast who has longed for an elite group of sympathetic allies will be drawn into Kotecki’s spell-binding tale of the underground conflict between good and evil.  Even if no supernatural powers were involved, it would appear that most people fall into one category or the other.  Due to the curse affecting girls who are about to turn sixteen, virginity is a recurring topic in The Suburban Strange and the subject is handled deftly.   A same-sex relationship is also no cause for fanfare.

Since the story has an open ending, fans are going to demand to know what happens in Celia’s junior year at Suburban.  Be prepared to buy the sequel, Pull Down the Night.     

     

Supernatural–Fiction, Friendship-Fiction              --Hilary Welliver