Gardenia

by Kelsey Sutton

Overview

In this haunting young adult suspense from an award-winning author, seventeen-year-old Ivy Erickson knows the exact moment when she will die, but what she does with her remaining days could end up saving more than just her own life.


"Beautifully written and fast-paced, Gardenia had me staying up past my bedtime several nights in a row!" —Pintip Dunn, New York Times bestselling author of Forget Tomorrow


Ever since she was a child, Ivy has been able to see countdown clocks over everyone's heads indicating how long before they will die. She can't do anything about anyone else’s, nor can she do anything about her own, which will hit the zero hour before she even graduates high school.


A life cut short is tragic, but Ivy does her best to make the most of it. She struggles emotionally with her deep love for on-again, off-again boyfriend Myers Patripski. She struggles financially, working outside of school to help her mom and her sister. And she struggles to cope with the murder of her best friend, another life she couldn't save. Vanessa Donovan was murdered in the woods, and everyone in town believes Ivy had something to do with it.


Then more girls start disappearing. Ivy tries to put her own life in order as she pieces together the truth of who ended Vanessa's. To save lives, and for her own sanity.


The clock is always ticking. And Ivy's only hope is to expose the truth before it runs out completely.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781626818415
Publisher:	Diversion Books
Publication date:	02/28/2017
Pages:	260
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Kelsey Sutton is the author of the teen novel SOME QUIET PLACE. She is also the author of two novels for middle grade readers, THE LONELY ONES and BENJAMIN. Her work has received an Independent Publisher Book Award, an IndieFab Award, and was selected as a Kirkus Reviews Best Teen Book of 2013. She lives in Minnesota.

Editorial Reviews

"Beautifully written and fast-paced, Gardenia had me staying up past my bedtime several nights in a row!" —Pintip Dunn, New York Times bestselling author of Forget Tomorrow


“Absolutely captivating. Sutton is a magical storyteller and I was under this book's spell from page one.”—Natalie D. Richards, author of Six Months Later


“Ivy’s investigation is suspenseful, but the narrative also offers unexpected emotional and philosophical depths that emerge from her musings about the nature of life, death, and personal legacy.” —Kirkus


"Spare and poignant, every word of this haunting and elegant novel in verse feels painstakingly selected....a brilliantly crafted coming-of-age novel that will appeal to the hearts and minds of all readers who have ever felt alone." —Kirkus Reviews *STARRED REVIEW* for The Lonely Ones

From the Publisher

03/01/2017
Gr 9 Up—Seventeen-year-old Ivy can see numbers over everyone's heads showing how many years, months, days, and hours they have left to live. So it is not a surprise to her when her best friend, Vanessa, dies. She was not, however, expecting her to be murdered. Ivy is now determined to find out who killed Vanessa, all while watching her own countdown and knowing she only has one month and 27 days left to live. This work reads as a suspenseful mystery with a determined amateur sleuth, and the countdown numbers add an interesting layer to the story. The suspense builds steadily as more girls are found dead in the area and Ivy is running out of time. As she visits the elderly and dying in a nursing home, the theme of life and death and living your best life are well conveyed, although the school play about a dying girl's last day puts it a little over-the-top. The twist at the end is shocking but credible due to groundwork laid previously. VERDICT An additional purchase where mysteries are popular; a good read-alike for The Amateurs by Sara Shepard or Nearly Gone by Elle Cosimano.—Allison McLean, Elkhart Public Library, IN

School Library Journal

2016-11-23
With only a month to live, high school senior Ivy investigates her best friend's murder.Ivy secretly sees countdown clocks floating above people's heads that reveal the time left before they die. Ivy believes "the numbers don't lie," making her predicted death, within months of her best friend Vanessa's, inevitable. But Ivy can't help but hope she will be able to somehow intervene and save Vanessa before her countdown ends. Instead, in a moment of self-pity and self-sabotage, Ivy kisses Vanessa's boyfriend—and is caught by her own boyfriend, Myers. During the ensuing chaos, the girls separate, leaving a frantic Ivy searching for Vanessa, whose body is later found in the woods. After two months, the investigation has stalled while Ivy is nearly paralyzed by guilt, longing for Myers, and fear about her own death. But when she concludes solving the crime could be her salvation, her knowledge of her own time of death becomes an asset by encouraging bold investigative tactics. Plenty of red herrings lend plausibility to Ivy's occasionally wild suspicions about community members. And when Ivy begins receiving death threats—made credible by her own ticking clock—readers will anticipate and dread the climax. Though Ivy's small town is not at all-white one, her immediate circle seems to be. Ivy's investigation is suspenseful, but the narrative also offers unexpected emotional and philosophical depths that emerge from her musings about the nature of life, death, and personal legacy. (Thriller. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews