Hannah is struggling. Neighbors and friends understand that she is upset about the disappearance of her father, but they don't realize that another problem has been present all along. She also has a great best friend, a potential ally in the school's hall monitor, and a journal that she confides in (which also helps us see things from her viewpoint).
The town of Riverway is not a bustling metropolis. As Hannah explains, "Some people think Riverway feels like a ghost town. But I think it's more like a zombie town. The people go about their daily lives, staring blankly a good deal of the time, rarely questioning events, big or small." The police efforts to solve her father's disappearance are a case in point. They looked around, talked to people, put up "missing" posters, and nothing has happened in the months since.
The ongoing problem that Hannah struggles with is ADHD. She has never been diagnosed because she has never talked to anyone about the things in class that seem more difficult to her than they do for her peers. More than anything else, Hannah does not want to be labeled a bad kid. "Becoming a problem child must be avoided at all costs. It is a label you can never shake off...Therefore, no matter how boring the class, no matter how unbearable it is to sit still, no matter how glaring the lights, I always try to pretend to be a GOOD KID."
Despite all the energy she puts into avoiding the dreaded fate of being known as a bad kid, Hannah also has to spend time looking for clues about her father - especially after her friend Sam tells her that he saw her father's ghost at the old mill. That can't be right, because Hannah can't accept that he might be dead, so he can't be a ghost. But experiments with a Ouija board and visits to the mill make it seem that something from beyond may be trying to communicate. And Hannah has to do something or her creepy Uncle Fergus may move right in and try to take her father's place. He has been dropping by with casseroles (inedible), advice (useless and unwanted), and trying to talk her mother into signing over control of the family business - just so he can help out (yeah, right).
Between finding time to investigate, keeping up with school assignments, coping with Uncle Fergus and the way her mother seems to be letting him ooze right into their home, and doing her best to avoid the school counselor who is acting suspiciously - it is no wonder Hannah feels a bit frazzled around the edges. Her carefully crafted persona of "GOOD KID" is coming unraveled. When her mother confronts her about a message from school, Hannah wonders, "If she had to sit through a thousand review lessons as electric lights buzzed into her skull and her legs cramped from wanting to jump up and escape; if she had to do endless assignments that felt like they'd been completed before they were started; and, on top of that, if she had to keep it a secret so nobody noticed her struggle, well then, she would probably act the same way."
Hannah may worry that she is secretly a bad kid, but it turns out that she was right. There is something rotten in Riverway. The cause of her father's disappearance is sinister. And that school counselor really is untrustworthy. But - Sam and their classmate Tim (the hall monitor) are good friends to have in a crisis, and telling the truth about her difficulties in class is a good step toward finding solutions. Even if the future will not be the same, even if her father is truly gone, Hannah will be okay.
I have seen many kids struggle in class as Hannah does in this story. And many of them do try to hide what is going on. When you speak to them about something they are not able to do as easily as others in class, they seem to expect that they will be in trouble. There have been many conversations over the years explaining that teachers are there to help and that they cannot help if they do not know about the problem. I was very glad to see that the other counselor at school was actually supportive and eager to work with Hannah. Even more than solving the mystery of her father, I was ready to cheer when Hannah was able to say, "I'm not worried about something being wrong with me. I don't feel the heavy pressure to be right all the time - nobody is right all the time. When it comes to being perfect, being myself is the perfect thing to do." You go, girl!
I read an advance copy provided by the publisher for review purposes. This book will be coming out September 10 from Fabled Films Press - just in time to put it in the hands of students who have come back to school ready to read something new, or for those who may need to see someone who is dealing with similar issues in class and realize that they are not alone. Adults may catch the many parallels with the story of Hamlet, but this is a middle grades mystery that even those not familiar with Shakespeare will enjoy.
