{ "item_title" : "Night Objects", "item_author" : [" Eli Raphael "], "item_description" : "This suspenseful novel transports readers to the windswept coast of Washington State and a boarding school steeped in privilege and deadly secrets--a remarkable story of grief, power, and the dangerous price of belonging. Part mystery, part coming-of-age tale, Night Objects will keep readers guessing all the way through, but it's the book's emotional center--a daughter in deep mourning for her late mother--that elevates this novel into something truly memorable. ―Liz Moore, New York Times bestselling author of The God of the Woods It is true that I wished him dead dozens of times. Hundreds, even. But I, Lenny Winter, did not kill that boy. Lenny Winter is fifteen years-old when she moves with her parents to an aging houseboat off the rugged coast of Washington. She imagines a quiet life spent charting constellations and chasing her dream of becoming an astronomer. Instead, a sudden tragedy shatters her world and catapults her to Blanchard, a renowned boarding school for the Pacific Northwest's elite, where wealth and tradition rule. Blanchard is dazzling, insular--and haunted by its own legends. At its heart lurks the Pascalianum Club, a secret society known to shape the school's greatest and most notorious students, and whose influence stretches far beyond campus walls. Hungry to belong, Lenny is drawn into its orbit, even as she senses that the club feeds on the very vulnerabilities she is desperate to hide. As privilege collides with grief and loyalty warps into obsession, Lenny's choices will lead to an unforgettable reckoning--and a murder investigation that will test every story she tells herself about guilt, power, hope, and who she is becoming. Sweeping, thrilling, and deeply moving, Night Objects is both a gripping mystery and a profound coming-of-age story--asking what we risk, what we become, and who we hold dear when the need to belong eclipses everything else. Night Objects is one of those rare novels that is somehow both a bingeable mystery and a literary work of art. ―Stacy Willingham, New York Times bestselling author of Forget Me Not Riveting ... she delivers more than thrills, probing potent themes of grief, classism, and the slippery nature of memory. ―Publishers Weekly (starred review) Devotees of Donna Tartt's The Secret History will thrill to the dark academic glamour and sinister secret society Raphael creates in this mesmerizing novel. ―Library Journal (starred review)", "item_img_path" : "https://covers4.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/1/53/877/587/1538775875_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "29.00", "online_price" : "29.00", "our_price" : "29.00", "club_price" : "29.00", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "29.00" } }

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When readers first meet the 15-year-old girl at the heart of Eli Raphael’s haunting and suspenseful Night Objects, she is defiant and direct: “It’s true that I wished him dead dozens of times. Hundreds, even. But I, Lenny Winter, did not kill that boy.”

Who’s the boy in question, and why is anyone wondering if Lenny killed him? (Is it possible Lenny’s lying and she really did kill him?) Raphael gradually reveals that and much more in a slow-burning thriller that entertainingly eludes the truth via its structure: “Before” chapters delve into Lenny’s life prior to her boarding school classmate’s gruesome death, while “After” chapters are told from Lenny 10 years in the future, reflecting on the wild series of events that consumed her junior year. Throughout both, carefully placed breadcrumbs circle ever closer to shocking revelations that shaped who Lenny is today—and what compelled her to share this harrowing story.

Raphael seeds her darkly dramatic coming-of-age tale with teasers: “Years later, I understand. A hand of mercy had been extended, but it held a dagger” and “Perhaps I should have felt a warning . . . . But I’m sorry to say I felt none of that. I went willingly inside.” Of course, no one could fault Lenny, an aspiring astronomer, for not understanding the unspoken inner workings of life at the posh Blanchard School. Just months before her first day there, her life was entirely different. In June, she and her parents moved from Miami to a houseboat in Washington state. In August, she and her stepfather were devastated by her mom’s untimely death. By September, she was at Blanchard on scholarship, reeling with grief and feeling profoundly alone.

Potential membership in the school’s secret Pascalianum Club offers hope for comfort and collegiality, but budding friendships soon breed jealousy, deception, class conflict and, yes, murder. Can Lenny’s love for her mother, her fascination with the stars and her wobbly inner compass guide her through murky waters? Fans of Stacy Willingham's Only If You're Lucky, Donna Tartt's The Secret History and J.T. Ellison’s Good Girls Lie will revel in this multilayered and impressive debut.