When We Were Feral

Grant (Gather Us Up and Bring Us Home) spins a gritty tale of a girl’s coming of age in rural New Hampshire in the 1990s. Twelve-year-old Maggie Thompson, who lives with her dad in a trailer home, is reeling from her mother’s sudden departure when she witnesses Rachel Mann, 16, drowning in a nearby lake. One year later, Rachel’s mother disappears (her car is found abandoned near a bridge), and Maggie and her friend Sarah team up with Rachel’s younger sister, Erin, to find out what happened to Mrs. Mann. They suspect she ran off with a local judge and probate attorney who disappeared around the same time after he was caught embezzling money from his clients. While out looking for clues, the girls run into three high school boys, who invite them to a party. There, Maggie, now 13, is pressured by the boys into sexual activity and finds her friendships tested in the aftermath. Grant delivers an unflinching depiction of the sexual exploitation faced by the girls, and she offers a sensitive account of Maggie’s burgeoning desires. (Remembering the lifeguard who tried to save Rachel, Maggie reflects, “I’d hoped the lifeguard noticed me—not as someone to save, but as someone he might want to touch.”) There’s plenty to savor in this intense novel. (June)