Don't Breathe a Word by Jennifer McMahon

    "Don't look under the bed...it's stupid really.  Crazy...but what she is is afraid.  Because when she was a little girl, she saw the trapdoor under her bed that only appeared in the darkest hours of the night.  Heard the scrabbling, the squeaking of hinges as it was opened.  And she saw what came out.
     And she knows (doesn't she?) that sometimes he's there still, not just under the bed, but in the shadows at the bus stop, lurking with the alley cats behind the dumpster at her apartment building.  He's everywhere and nowhere.  A blur caught out of the corner of her eye.  A mocking smile she tells herself she's imagined."

Don't Breathe a Word is the first book I've read by Jennifer McMahon and, throughout most of the book, I didn't know what to make of it.  Is it a mystery or is it fantasy?  I swung back and forth in my opinion.  I wasn't sure if I was fascinated, repelled or just really, really interested in knowing the truth, and I'm still not sure I truly understood the "truth".  Are you confused now?  Join the club.  And, yet, this won't be the last book I'll read by this author.  In fact, I've already made plans to read her backlist.  Guess that tells you something.

One night, Lisa, a 12-year-old girl who is fascinated by fairies and especially the King of the Fairies, walks into the Vermont forest behind her home and never comes back.  She is headed for Reliance, a sort of ghost town that everyone talks about, saying that all the inhabitants disappeared simultaneously, leaving behind all their belongings, never to return.  Lisa isn't sure that the old stories about Reliance are true, but she and her younger brother Sam and cousin Evie have been visiting the ruins in the forest and looking for clues and also looking for fairies.  She's sure that she will one day meet Teilo, the King of the Fairies, and he will make her his queen.

Fifteen years have passed and Sam has grown up.  He never believed in fairies or ghosts or any of the old stories, but he's always wondered what happened in the forest the night his sister left.  Phoebe, Sam's girlfriend, also wonders.  She hasn't told Sam that she was in Harmony, the little Vermont town where Sam grew up, right after Lisa's disappearance, that she actually saw Sam as she stood in the crowd in front of his house.  Strange things have been happening.  Odd phone calls.  Phoebe and Sam find a book that belonged to Lisa that long ago summer, The Book of Fairies.  Could Lisa still be alive?  What happened to Cousin Evie and her mother, Aunt Hazel?  And the fairies, are they back to remind Sam of a promise he made, a promise they intend to make him keep?

Regardless of whether this book might be classified as a mystery, a psychological suspense novel, or a book of fantasy, I am glad I read it.  The chapters alternate between Lisa and her life fifteen years ago and Phoebe in the present day.  That was a plot device that worked fairly well.  We are slowly fed the details of the events leading up to Lisa's disappearance and just as slowly taken through Phoebe and Sam's discoveries in the present day.  I often thought I had solutions determined and then would realize that I was wrong.  I couldn't decide if there were bad people who stole that 12-year-old girl away or if there were actual supernatural elements involved.  And I'm not going to tell you any more.  Sorry.  You'll have to read Don't Breathe a Word for yourself.

The last thing I want to say is that I think the cover is almost disturbing with that little girl and her big, big eyes.  Slightly creepy.  And, what is it about the New England woods and monsters?  I used to read Stephen King and you won't find me traipsing through the tulips there.  Something is bound to jump out and get you!  For other opinions, read:

Fyrefly's Book Blog

Unputdownables

Eve's Fan Garden

I was sent this book by Amazon Vine.  Thanks so much!  Don't Breathe a Word will be released on May 17, 2011.