About this item
Emily Arsenault (The Rose Notes) makes her YA debut with a "page-ripping whodunit" about Marnie Wells, who comes face-to-face with the occult when she discovers her ability to read tea leaves might help solve the mystery of a classmate's disappearance.Marnie Wells knows that she creeps people out. It's not really her fault; her brother is always in trouble, and her grandmother, who's been their guardian since Mom took off is . . . eccentric. So no one even bats an eye when Marnie finds an old book about reading tea leaves and starts telling fortunes. The ceremony and symbols are weirdly soothing, but she knows - and hopes everyone else does too - that none of it's real.Then basketball star Matt Cotrell asks for a reading. He's been getting emails from someone claiming to be his best friend, Andrea Quinley, who disappeared and is presumed dead. And while they'd always denied they were romantically involved, a cloud of suspicion now hangs over Matt. But Marnie sees a kindred spirit: someone who, like her, is damaged by association.Suddenly, the readings seem real. And, despite the fact that they're telling Marnie things about Matt that make him seem increasingly dangerous, she can't shake her initial attraction to him. In fact, it's getting stronger. And that could turn out to be deadly.
About the Author
I haven't had a terribly interesting life, so I won't share too many details. But the highlights include:* When I was a preschooler and a kindergartner, I had a lazy eye and I was Connecticut's "Miss Prevent Blindness," appearing on pamphlets and television urging parents to get their kids' eyes checked. I wore an eye patch and clutched a blonde doll wearing a similar patch. I imagine it was all rather maudlin, but at the time I wouldn't have known that word. * I wrote my first novel when I was in fifth grade. It was over a hundred pages and took me the whole school year to write. (It was about five girls at a summer camp. I'd never been to a summer camp, but had always wanted to attend one. ) When I was all finished, I turned back to the first page, eager to read it all from the beginning. I was horrified at how bad it was. * At age thirteen, I got to go to a real sleepaway camp. It was nothing like the book I had written. * I studied philosophy in college. So did my husband. We met in a Hegel class, which is awfully romantic. * I worked as an editorial assistant at Merriam-Webster from 1998-2002, and got to help write definitions for their dictionaries. * My husband and I served in the Peace Corps together, working in rural South Africa. I miss Losasaneng, miss many of the people we met there, and dream about it often.* I am now working on my third novel. It is tentatively titled Just Someone I Used to Know, named after and old song Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton used to sing together.
