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Gr 8 Up—Flinn reinvents the "Rapunzel" story as a teen thriller. Rachel spends her days and nights alone in a tower. Her sole contact with humanity is the daily visit of "Mama," and Rachel both loves and rebels against her jailor. Then Wyatt arrives in town. His mother is hoping that he will begin to recover from his friends' deaths in a car accident. He can't understand why no one in this small town seems perturbed by the number of missing teenagers, one of whom was his mother's best friend. He also can't understand why he is app...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

Flinn, known for her contemporary re-imaginings of fairy tales (Beastly; Bewitching, rev. 3/12), delivers a dark take on "Rapunzel," with nary a "let down your hair" in sight. Rachel, who possesses healing tears and (yes) rapidly growing hair, has been trapped in a tower in remote Slakkill, New York, for most of her life; a person she calls "Mama" is her only human contact. Despite her imprisonment, she knows that "there was something else I had to d...Log In or Sign Up to Read More