Aila Quinn’s mother, Juliet, has always been a mystery: vibrant yet guarded, she keeps her secrets beyond Aila’s reach. When Juliet dies, Aila and her younger brother Miles are sent to live in Sterling, a rural town far from home--and the place where Juliet grew up.
Sterling is a place with mysteries of its own. A place where the experiences that weave life together--scents of flowers and food, reflections from mirrors and lakes, even the ability to dream--vanish every seven years.
No one knows what caused these “Disappearances,” or what will slip away next. But Sterling always suspected that Juliet Quinn was somehow responsible--and Aila must bear the brunt of their blame while she follows the chain of literary clues her mother left behind.
As the next Disappearance nears, Aila begins to unravel the dual mystery of why the Disappearances happen and who her mother truly was. One thing is clear: Sterling isn’t going to hold on to anyone's secrets for long before it starts giving them up.
Opening line:
"I want something of hers."
Aila Quinn's mother died.
Her father was going to war.
Aila and her brother Miles had nowhere to go.
A stranger, a friend of their mother, takes them in. They knew they would not like Sterling but little did they know that the town was surrounded by mystery and the citizen's didn't have a future...at least that is what they believed.
Sterling is the city of The Disappearances. Reflections are missing in windows and mirrors; scents have disappeared; coloring with crayons only produces grey. Every seven years something new goes missing and every seven years the townspeople hope and pray that the curse will end.
Aila and Miles are thrust into the middle of the curse. The only clue Aila has is in the underlined passages in a volume of Shakespeare's works.
This was a fun and intriguing read! I wanted to know if Aila and her friends could figure out how to break the curse. It was fun to read Shakespeare too!
I loved the writing and here are a few quotes:
"I want to ask George, How can you be so unafraid of the truth? Even truth that is inconvenient or damning or not what you want it to be?"
"The Clifftons, whether they are trying to or not, are making inroads straight across each fault line of my heart."
"And I think that for the rest of my life I will never forget this night--when under an empty ink sky, a boy who shone brighter than the stars stopped long enough to smile at me."
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