The Library of Shadows

Debut author Moore entwines fairy tale horrors and heady romance to craft an eerie boarding school mystery. Sixteen-year-old Este Logano has just received a legacy scholarship to attend prestigious—and rumored haunted—Radcliffe Prep high school, the academy her now dead father once dropped out of. Este soon meets handsome teen Mateo, who persuades her to explore the off-limits spire full of the school’s rarest treasures, from which Mateo steals a magical text called The Book of Fades and vanishes. Caught by the imperious head librarian and threatened with expulsion unless she returns the book, Este seeks out Mateo, who reveals that he is the ghost of the school founder’s son, who went missing in 1917. He also informs her that a student is kidnapped each decade by enigmatic spirits called the Fades, and that the book is the only way to stop the specters. But the tome is missing pages, and if the duo want to succeed, Este will have to dig into both Mateo’s and her father’s shadowy pasts. While densely rendered worldbuilding and plot points occasionally befuddle, the swoony paranormal courtship between Este and Mateo burns brightly in this dark-academia adventure. Ages 13–up. (Sept.)