Thornbird

Adult romance author Kennedy makes her YA debut with a taut, empathetic thriller that probes the long shadow of familial and communal trauma and its effect on the 17-year-old daughter of a serial killer. High school senior Ryan Shipley returns to her childhood home in Starling, Tenn., to live with her aunt and uncle following her grandmother’s death. Her father, Gabriel, is on death row for the murder of seven women, including Ryan’s mother, and the town’s obsession with the case has only intensified with the announcement of a million-dollar reward for information about the victims’ whereabouts. As Ryan navigates the pressures of reintegrating herself into Starling society and nurtures budding romantic feelings for a charismatic quarterback and an archetypal bad boy, she must reconcile complicated memories of her father with his monstrous actions. Meanwhile, Ryan’s twin cousins Jasmine and Conner dive headlong into the renewed frenzy over the case, drawing Ryan into an investigation that tests her wit and courage. Suspenseful writing and nuanced, morally complex characterization—relayed via Ryan’s intelligent and resilient first-person narration—anchors both introspective examinations of the ripple effects of violence and a grimly layered mystery about identity and reconciliation. The cast is intersectionally diverse. Ages 14–up. (June)