You’ve Awoken Her

Gr 7 Up–It’s been months since Gabriel saw his best friend Ruth, who left Queens and started a fancy new life in the Hamptons. So when Gabi gets the opportunity to spend the summer with her, he quickly agrees. His first night, Ruth introduces Gabi to her enigmatic and pretentious boyfriend Frost Thurston at a party. When Gabi leaves to walk along the beach, a shriek pierces the night and he sees a gigantic tentacle pulling a poor young woman into the ocean. Gabi realizes that a pattern of missing persons in the small Hamptons community has been an ongoing problem for the past several years, but no one seems to care. It’s also clear to Gabi that Frost’s intentions with Ruth are more sinister that she realizes, but the time and distance apart over the last few months has created a space between them that Gabi isn’t sure he can close. Could the people-eating ocean monster and the friend-stealing human monster Frost be somehow connected? In this dark and foreboding novel, Cardinal takes readers on a working-class view of the Hamptons through Gabriel’s eyes. Gabi works mostly undercover as he rubs elbows with the rich elite of the community, and it doesn’t take much for him to pull back the seedy underbelly of the Hamptons and learn that things are definitely not how they appear. While at times a frustrating protagonist, Gabriel is a level-headed character and his desire to protect and do right by his best friend are applaudable. Despite the fantastical elements of dealing with a sea monster, the novel is grounded and relatable for any young person who has tried to reconnect with a friend after they have moved away. Gabi is Puerto Rican.