Glimmer

The cliché of waking up naked with a stranger is an unpromising start (if an undeniable hook) for Kitanidis’s (Whisper) second YA novel, a magic-tinged horror/romance that recalls elements of Nova Ren Suma’s Imaginary Girls and Karen Healey’s The Shattering. After the initial shock, Elyse and Marshall find some clothes and figure out that they have both lost their memories. Elyse is quickly recognized by the townspeople, and while she can’t accept her name, her parents, the clothes in her closet, or her very body, this self-rejection is overshadowed by the many peculiarities of the bucolic tourist town of Summer Falls, Colo. No one answers questions, the weather is always perfect, and residents’ many memory gaps are treated as a matter of course. What are the bizarre “heatnaps” that befall residents and visitors alike? Who are the hostile ghosts that only Elyse can see? Kitanidis’s elaborate premise requires significant suspension of disbelief, so while there’s no faulting the author’s dialogue or characterizations, skeptical eyebrows will likely remain raised throughout. Ages 14–up. Agent: Jim McCarthy, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. (Apr.)