SuitabookGrief and reinvention
Mars attends the academy after Caroline’s death and seeks to understand his increasingly distant twin while coping with grief and longing for acceptance.
Loading your next page
Book details
Ryan La Sala - Author
A grief-laden investigation gradually turns a picturesque summer academy into a threatening, psychologically unstable place. The novel combines queer identity, family pressure and gender-role criticism with folk-horror imagery, suspense and disturbing supernatural danger.
Book Brief
Sign in to see how this book fits your child and family preferences.
Sign in for personalised guidanceA grief-laden investigation gradually turns a picturesque summer academy into a threatening, psychologically unstable place. The novel combines queer identity, family pressure and gender-role criticism with folk-horror imagery, suspense and disturbing supernatural danger.
Mars attends the academy after Caroline’s death and seeks to understand his increasingly distant twin while coping with grief and longing for acceptance.
Mars is genderfluid and excluded from family traditions; the academy is described as enforcing old-fashioned gender roles and the novel as exploring gender binaries.
The Honeys are presented as beautiful and terrifying, while the academy’s idyllic festivities conceal decay, pressure and possible danger.
The book includes a sibling’s death under horrific circumstances, fresh grief, frightening pursuit, faltering memories, creepy horror scenes, body-related horror and references to being eaten alive. The ending may remain unsettling rather than neatly resolved.
This is a grounded book brief while Suitabook strengthens the analysis: another book-specific source is still needed; some draft conclusions still depend on unresolved evidence.
Anything not established here remains open; it is not being treated as absent or safe.
These links show the original reading lists. Inclusion is not a guarantee of suitability for your child.