Five Survive by Holly Jackson

 

Six older teenagers in an RV on a long road trip get stranded in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere. There's no internet, their tires are flat. It feels like a big adventure until a rifle shot alerts them that they are prisoners of someone who wants something. They learn that someone in the RV has a secret and the shooter won't stop until he gets the information he needs. This truly terrifying story takes place in just 8 hours. Red, the 18-year-old protagonist, tells the story and secrets, cruelty, and scares abound. The book has a lot of foul language and is truly frightening. Five Survive is reviewed for grades 9-up. I can promise you that middle schoolers (who are huge fans of Holly Jackson and only want to read murder mysteries) are eating this one up. 

Gaslit by Megan Davidhizar

Ella volunteers to babysit for her nephew on New Year's Eve. When she arrives at her aunt's house she finds the door open and bodies on the floor. She pulls two people to safety but can't save the life of one of the people in the house. But why were people in the house and who disconnected the hose that created the gas leak? Was this murder or a terrible accident? Is her older cousin telling the truth? Can the good looking neighbor boy be trusted? Is Ella's medical condition making her see things that aren't really there? This is a twisty mystery with a YA vibe that's appropriate for middle schoolers. 

The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson

 

Bel's mother disappeared from her car on the highway many years ago when Bel was just a toddler. No one knows if she was abducted, murdered, or simply ran away, but she has not been seen since and Bel has grown up with her father in the same small town. In order to pay for the care of her aging grandfather, Bel and her father agree to be filmed for a documentary about the disappearance of Rachel Price. In the midst of filming, a woman in a tattered red shirt and black pants shows up in town claiming to be Rachel Price and saying she was kidnapped and held in a basement for 16 years. She moves into their house and agrees to be filmed for the documentary. She wants to resume being "mom" to Bel, but Bel has doubts about her motives and her story. This super-compelling mystery is great for teenagers. It is full of F-bombs, but other than that language there is nothing inappropriate for 8th graders looking for a twisty mystery. I will definitely be recommending this to my older middle school readers. 

The Da Vinci Code (The Young Adult Adaptation) by Dan Brown

This YA adaptation of what the New York Times calls a "brainy thriller" has all the excitement of the adult edition, which I read years ago and loved, but had mostly forgotten. Dan Brown brings the reader immediately into the action, where a Louvre curator rips a painting off the wall to bring down the security gate that might save him. He is, however, shot by an assassin, and in the 20 minutes it takes him to die, is able to leave a coded treasure hunt for his granddaughter and Harvard professor Robert Langdon to unravel. The book's short chapters are the perfect way to keep readers on the edge of their seats as secret after secret is revealed. The book spares none of the intrigue or the sometimes confusing plot that sees two secret societies battling it out over a secret that could bring down western society (or at least bring down the Catholic church, or so they say). There is so much art and culture and historical context in this book--I hope that bright kids will find it to be an introduction to a whole world of thrillers and action books, or maybe even religion and art history. The Da Vinci Code is like nothing else found in YA literature. It definitely belongs in middle and high school libraries. (For those who remember the steamy pagan ritual from the original, it is included in the book but the details are glossed over to the point that readers might not quite understand what made Sophia distance herself from her grandfather for ten long years. I'm discussing this book with 8th graders next week--I'm anxious to see what their take is on that and on the book as a whole.)