School Library Journal Review
Gr 8 Up--Calliope Bolan's transfer to Tipton Academy to escape the village that can't stop talking about her mom's death--and her own near-death--is not the escape she intends it to be when she gets wrapped up in a secret society. Haunt and Rail is dedicated to righting the wrongs at Tipton through pranks and "larks" and they set their sights on taking down a teacher for his inappropriate relationship with students. But Calliope's time with Haunt and Rail is further complicated by what role the society may have played in her mother's death. Can Calliope unlock the secrets of the past without getting tangled up in the present? Frick brings the campus to life in small, daily tidbits and chapters, and while the resolution to one half of the story is less than satisfying, it feels perfectly juxtaposed by the other ending. The characters' race and ethnicity was not stated. VERDICT A solid campus mystery for readers who want the intrigue of a secret society and a death to unravel, but who don't want the gory details. Add especially to collections frequented by a younger high school crowd.--Aryssa Damron
Publisher's Weekly Review
Calliope Bolan, who is white, begins her junior year hoping to escape her small hometown, where everyone knows her and her two sisters as survivors of an unexplained car accident that killed their mother six years prior. A legacy student just transferring to New York boarding school Tipton Academy, Calliope is quickly tapped to become a "ghost" like her mom before her--a member of Tipton's intersectionally inclusive secret society, Haunt and Rail, which fights for social justice on campus via awareness-raising "larks." Calliope finds a sense of purpose in the group, but when the ghosts go after someone on campus whom they believe to be a sexual predator, Calliope begins to doubt their methods--and starts noticing connections between the organization and her mother's death. Frick (I Killed Zoe Spanos), who treats her protagonist's trauma with care, considers ethical quandaries about corrupt systems and moral vs. political authority while providing ample twists and references to fairy tale archetypes. Nuanced and startling in turn, this is a satisfyingly smart and thrilling tale. Ages 14--up. Agent: Erin Harris, Folio Literary. (Apr.)
Kirkus Review
A chance encounter prompts a high school junior to wonder whether her mother's death six years before wasn't all that accidental. Hardly has Calliope Bolan arrived as a transfer student to Tipton, the exclusive boarding school in Alyson-on-Hudson that her mom and aunt attended, than a passing glimpse of a stranger who is somehow familiar sets her on a course toward a tangle of shocking family revelations--few if any of which even attentive readers will see coming. Never one to skimp on rising suspense and extreme plot twists, though, Frick also casts her teenage protagonist into a heady series of exploits as a new member of the Haunt and Rail Society, a decades-old secret group on campus that undertakes everything from wonderfully clever "larks" designed to raise awareness of inequities like underpaid kitchen staff to a campaign to expose a popular teacher as a sexual predator that escalates in a frighteningly proactive way. Ultimately Calliope comes to realize that nearly everything she thought she had understood about her classmates, her parents, and even her own motives has been wrong, and that saddles her with some hard choices to make…including one life-changing final twist. Aside from her bisexual aunt's wife, who is Black and Filipina, Calliope and her family are White; names and other cues identify her fellow students as diverse in race, ethnicity, and nationality. A doozy of a ride, with thrills and chills aplenty. (campus map) (Thriller. 13-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
The Bolan girls--Calliope, Lorelai, and Serafina--are known in their small town because of a tragic accident: they survived a car crash, and their mother did not. Six years later, Calliope, feeling suffocated by the attention, jumps at the opportunity to attend prestigious Tipton Academy. While trying to solve the mystery of why her mother crashed their van, she's drawn into the Haunt and Rail, a secret society focused on social justice, though she may regret the association more than she realizes. Her mother was also involved in the Haunt and Rail, which offers only more questions about her initiation. When the society's actions cause trouble with a faculty member, Calliope's past and future collide in a terrifying way. Frick (I Killed Zoe Spanos, 2020) has penned another smart thriller peppered with excellent turns of phrase--here the sisters are "part survival story, part fable, part cautionary tale." This joins the growing ranks of dark academia books, which should increase its demand. Recommended for all libraries.
Excerpts
Chapter 1 1 We are the Bolan sisters. Calliope, Lorelei, and Serafina. If our names sound like they were plucked from a fairy tale, it's because they were. Momma wanted, above all things, to live in a fairy tale. We have pale, freckly skin and dark auburn hair, which we refuse to cut. It falls in long jumbles down our backs--thick and wavy for Lorelei and me; wispy curls for Serafina. We are tall for our ages, respectively. We are clumsy. We have mammoth feet and delicate wrists. We see the world with perfect vision. Lorelei and I have green eyes. Serafina's eyes are brown. When we are together, we collect stares we'd rather return. See? It's the Bolan girls. The ones who survived. We don't live in a fairy tale, but people regard us, sometimes, as if we are more story than girl. More myth than flesh that hurts and bleeds and grieves. Serafina is seven, the baby. Lorelei and I are so close in age, so close in appearance, so close that we are often mistaken for twins. I am the oldest, sixteen. My sister is fifteen, a year and change behind me. Our mother loved all magical stories and consulted a variety of sources when naming her daughters. My name, Calliope, was drawn from ancient Greek myth. Lorelei owes hers to German folklore. Serafina is from seraphim, angels of the highest order in Abrahamic religious lore. Put us together, and we are part survival story, part fable, part cautionary tale. We live with our father in a small village in the Adirondack Mountains. Our house is large and drafty and far from other houses. There is a nearby lake, from which our village takes its name. There is a grocery store and a general store and a movie theater with one screen. In the summer, the vacationers and second-homers move in, and the village hums with life. In the winter, we hunker down, shrinking to a quarter of our size. About eight hundred families live in Plover Lake year round; at school, we average 11.7 students per grade. In harshest winter, you could pack us all into a snow globe and shake. The Bolans have always lived here, before the accident and after. When I was little, I loved our house, our school, our postcard town. In my fantasies, I would always live here with my mother, my father, my sisters, and our dog. I could not fathom growing up and moving away. What could possibly tear me from the place that held all my memories, my family, my firsts? Now, the village is crushing me. It is so small. It has eyes and claws and teeth. There is a fairy tale like that. Tomorrow, I am leaving. I might never come back. Thruway Tragedy: New York Woman Drives Minivan Into Lake BY SAMIRA FARZAN September 26, 2016 An investigation has been opened by local NY authorities. GREENE COUNTY--On Friday, an upstate New York woman, who was with her three daughters, drove a Honda Odyssey off the road and into a lake bordering the New York State Thruway. The woman, who has been identified as Kathleen Marie Bolan, 38, was found dead. Ms. Bolan's oldest daughter, 10, led the rescue, getting herself and her two sisters, 9 and 14 months, to safety. From the side of the road, the girls were able to flag down a driver who called 911. Police, assisted by a dive team, found the vehicle submerged in the lake. The body of Ms. Bolan was inside. Local authorities are investigating possible causes to what the police chief calls "a tragic event." Peter Bolan, the girls' father and husband to Ms. Bolan, says his wife pulled his two oldest daughters out of school early that day without notifying him. "I have no idea where she was headed or why. There was no history of mental illness. Kathy would never drink and drive. You hear stories like this. I never thought it would be my wife, my daughters. Me asking the question--why?" Why this happened is the question on everyone's minds. The medics responding to the scene said it is "a miracle" all three daughters survived with only minor injuries. The girls, who are all in stable condition, did not describe any strange behavior from their mother leading up to the crash, and police report no immediate evidence of alcohol or substance use. "Possibilities include a mechanical failure or distracted driving," says Chief Mason Sumner of the Greene County Regional Department of Public Safety, who is investigating the crash. "A suicide and triple homicide attempt has not been ruled out as a possible cause. We haven't ruled anything out at this point. The autopsy may turn up more. I hope we'll be able to get answers for the family." Chief Sumner says he does not believe any other vehicles were involved. Police are trying to determine what happened just before the crash and are seeking the public's help. If you have any information about the collision, which took place Friday around 4:00 p.m. on 1-87, near the Athens exit, please call the Greene County Regional Department of Public Safety at 518-958-2461. Excerpted from Very Bad People by Kit Frick All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
