Blackout

In this loosely plotted amnesiac mystery, “tawny”-skinned high school senior Allie Castillo, the nearly 18-year-old narrator, awakens sans memories after leaving a party and crashing her car into a tree. Returning to home and school in small-town British Columbia, Allie is shocked to discover that she’s been regularly in trouble with the police due to incidents of shoplifting, vandalism, and underage drinking. She also learns that she was formerly a talented aspiring actor who clashed with her single mother; regularly ditched school with her best friend, blond top student Zoe Harris; and cheated on her affectionate “golden”-skinned boyfriend, school soccer captain Damien Sanchez. After Allie begins to experience vivid dreams, fragmented flashbacks, and “reality-altering hallucinations,” she teams up with “weird social pariah” and former friend Mason Byrne, who reads as white, finding clues that suggest an explanation differing from the accident’s official account. Savvy readers will intuit the guilty parties involved before the revelation, and the motives behind the mystery’s reveal remain simultaneously vague, but Allie’s stream-of-consciousness narration nevertheless pulls readers in. Ages 14–up. (Jan.)