Light As A Feather, Stiff As A Board

by Zoe Aarsen

Genres: YA Coming of Age; YA Contemporary; YA Dark Fantasy

Synopsis

McKenna Brady thinks her junior year of high school is going to be the best ever when she's welcomed into the elite group of popular girls at Weeping Willow High School led by blonde, gorgeous Olivia Richmond. Prior to junior year, McKenna was known in her small town as the girl whose twin sister died in a tragic house fire, but now she has a date to the homecoming dance with Olivia's handsome older brother and a good chance of being elected to student council. For the first time since McKenna's parents divorced, things are looking up.

Everything changes the night of Olivia's sweet 16 sleepover birthday party. Violet, the shy, mysterious new girl in town, suggests the girls play a scary game called Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board, during which she makes up elaborate stories about the future ways in which beautiful Olivia, brassy Candace, and athletic Mischa will die. The game unsettles McKenna because she's already escaped death once in her life, but she doesn't want to ruin her friends' fun. It's only a game, she reminds herself.

But it doesn't seem like a harmless game a week later when Olivia dies unexpectedly in a violent car crash, exactly as Violet predicted. And something begins haunting McKenna's bedroom at night, leaving her clues that all seem to point to Violet. McKenna enlists the help of her cute next-door neighbor Trey in finding out exactly what kind of curse Violet has put on all of the popular girls in the junior class. As Violet seemingly steps into the life Olivia left unfinished, McKenna and Trey have a limited amount of time to bring an end to Violet's game before more lives are lost.