Cassie’s belief in God died the day she witnessed a deadly train crash at age 11. Since then she’s only gone through the motions of her family’s Catholic faith, unable to tell her dad or older sister she’s not a believer anymore. Something fierce in Cassie also died that day; seven years later, she can’t imagine taking risks, although her devotion to her younger brother is the only reason she acknowledges for staying in her small town after high school. The summer after Cassie’s senior year, a boy named Elias, visiting at the time of the crash and the only other witness, has returned to town. Cassie (white) avoided answering Elias’s letters for years, not wanting to talk about the accident; now Elias invites Cassie to help him search for the ghosts of the Van Dorens, the family that was killed. Elias is also a prankster; his favorite target is a local priest whose hateful, divisive rhetoric on everything from immigration to climate change has Cassie reflecting on the power of words to shape perception, influence thinking, and entrench people’s beliefs. A book asking big questions about the world in which we live, our relationship to the idea of truth, our vulnerability, and the allure of turning away from things that frighten us is also a human story of connection, friendship, family, fear, survival, and fighting to reclaim one’s life. The writing is sharp and crisp and the story irresistible. (Age 13 and older)