Young Adult Fiction Psychological
What We Buried
- Publisher
- Square Fish
- Initial publish date
- Jul 2022
- Category
- Psychological, Mysteries & Detective Stories, Siblings
- Recommended Age
- 14 to 18
- Recommended Grade
- 9 to 12
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9781250191670
- Publish Date
- Feb 2019
- List Price
- $23.5
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781250233752
- Publish Date
- Jul 2022
- List Price
- $14.99
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
Told from the split viewpoints of Liv and Jory, Kate A. Boorman's What We Buried is a psychological thrill ride that deftly explores how memories can lie, how time can bend, and how reconciling the truth can be a matter of life or death.
“Do you ever just want to be believed?”
Siblings Liv and Jory Brewer have grown up resenting each another. Liv—former pageant queen and reality TV star—was groomed for a life in the spotlight, while her older brother, Jory, born with a partial facial paralysis, was left in the shadows. The only thing they have in common is contempt for their parents.
Now Liv is suing her mom and dad for emancipation, and Jory views the whole thing as yet another attention-getting spectacle. But on the day of the hearing, their parents mysteriously vanish, and the siblings are forced to work together. Liv feels certain she knows where they are and suspects that Jory knows more than he’s telling…which is true.
What starts as a simple overnight road trip soon takes a turn for the dangerous and surreal. And as the duo speeds through the deserts of Nevada, brother and sister will unearth deep family secrets that force them to relive their pasts as they try to retain a grip on the present.
About the author
Kate A. Boorman is an author from Edmonton, Alberta, with roots in the small town of Rimbey. Her books have been published in four world territories and have appeared on a variety of Best Of lists, from Seventeen to O! The Oprah Magazine. The first book in her acclaimed Winterkill trilogy won the Alberta Writers' Guild Award for Children's Fiction. Her latest YA, Into the Sublime, was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. The Heathens and the Dragon is Kate's middle grade debut. When she is not writing, she is wrangling her family and dreaming up travel to faraway lands.
Editorial Reviews
Cosmopolitan's 11 Best Young Adult Books You'll Be Obsessed With in 2019
Seventeen's 10 Best YA Books of 2019 (So Far)
A Bank Street Books' Best Books of the Year
"Every page invites new questions about what is happening and what is real, sucking readers into a funhouse world they will not want to escape...[C]ompulsively entertaining."—VOYA, Starred Review
"Vexing, poignant, and thought-provoking." —Kirkus
"Perceptive." —Publishers Weekly
"This story, of a brother and sister's journey through their pasts and into their futures, makes for haunting, shocking reading."—Booklist
"A disintegrating distinction between life and death is a known marker of mental meltdown, but also of spirits haunting the scene of a crime. What We Buried skillfully alternates the two sides every story has, unafraid of clarity with one foot in bafflement."—The Center for Fiction
"Keep[s] readers on their toes all the way up to the intense ending, but the emotional reconciliation, which is clearly what’s been at stake here all along, enables a sense of just desserts for all involved." —The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
"The key to a truly successful mystery/detective story is the author’s clever use of misdirection, and in What We Buried, Boorman succeeds masterfully...[A] great read, one that will definitely play with readers’ minds." —CM Magazine
