Shadow Girl

Gr 8 Up—Recent high school graduate Mei has accepted a job as an academic tutor to the youngest child of a finance mogul. When she reaches the island where the Morison family summer home is located, Mei is stunned at the lifestyle differences between her own family and that of her new charge. The teen tries to focus on her obligations, but as she spends more time with the Morisons, she finds herself devoting less energy to lesson plans, struggling to navigate the overindulgence and complicated web of friction in the home instead. And as Mei is increasingly pulled into the Morison family drama, strange things start to occur in the house. Mei isn't superstitious, but she can't shake her growing unease. Although presented as a ghost story, the first two-thirds of the book focus more on Mei's struggle to find and assert herself amid the strained Morison family dynamics as well as in her own complicated relationships rather than the supernatural. Mei feels an intense pressure to be accommodating with everyone in her life; if she is unable to meet these expectations she feels both shame and guilt. When the soft noises and shadows in her bedroom on the island eventually do twist into something more sinister, it's more foretelling than frightening. Some strong language is included.