Redemption Prep

Gr 7 Up–Miller takes on the boarding school trope with mixed results. Students at Redemption Prep are all exceptional in some way—plucked from their ordinary lives and sent, tuition-free, to the revered school in the wilds of Utah. Emma’s published a book of poetry, Evan can beat computers at chess, Aiden is a basketball champion, Neesha is a science genius—the list of accomplished students is never-ending and intimidating. When Emma disappears, her friends scramble to find her, all while dealing with the high-stakes atmosphere at Redemption, where succeeding can mean a jump-started, lucrative career and failure equals expulsion and a return to a family no longer familiar. Neesha, Aiden, and Evan parse clues and duck menacing maintenance workers, all while trying to avoid Redemption’s unwavering scrutiny. They learn more about their friend’s life, and their place in it, as they search for Emma. Readers will enjoy this 1990-set mystery, particularly the evocative, foggy, remote Utah setting. The ins and outs of the school—why students were selected, details of the pressure and accolades—will keep readers engaged. Shifting points of view work to some extent, and Evan’s perspective, in particular, is well done. The villain’s motive is surprising and a bit unfounded, and the conclusion doesn’t coalesce as much as one would hope.