Originally published as Children of Castle Rock in the UK

Daydreaming Alice has a dead mother, a useless father (who she loves anyway), and a practical and loving aunt...an aunt who chooses to sell their family home and send Alice to boarding school in Scotland. Arriving mid-term, Alice makes friends on the train with Jesse, a boy whose older brothers all excelled at the school. As Jesse and Alice race to reach the front door of Castle Rock - the last one to reach it is responsible for ringing the reveille gong all term - Fergus sticks out his foot and trips Alice. As a result, the three of them face Consequences, and ultimately become a team, discovering talents and bravery they didn't know they had during the Orienteering Challenge - during which they veer off course on a mission to meet Alice's father on a remote island.

Alice, Jesse, and Fergus are all very different, but each believable, and they do make a good team. Perhaps they even have a Talent for friendship. An omniscient narrator hints to the reader throughout about betrayals, near-death experiences, etc., so the reader always knows just a little more than any of the characters.

A perfect standalone, with adventure, mystery, suspense, and imagination. I'd be happy to read more about these three (even, perhaps, a YA novel that skips a few years into their future), but I'll content myself with the author's backlist in the meantime.

See also: The Pearl Thief by Elizabeth Wein (YA)

Quotes

Sometimes it just feels impossible to do what is right. (Jesse, 34)

...she felt the thin line between reality and her imagination rip. (Alice, 52)

"I am not sure if you can be brave, if you are not afraid. Being brave means standing up to the things that frighten us, even as we are quaking in our boots....To be fearless, we must first banish our fears, and to achieve that, we must look them in the face." (Major to Alice, 123)

But she thought - she hoped - that if she just believed in him enough, he would become who she wanted him to be. (128) ( )