Felicity has buried what she knows so deeply that she can’t even remember what it is. She knows that one misstep could send her tumbling from the top of the social ladder, and she’s worked hard to make everyone forget that she was with the Montors the night they disappeared. The entire town shuns her now that she lives with her drunken, one-eyed grandfather at what locals refer to as the “White Trash Zoo.”įelicity Turnado has it all: looks, money, and a secret. When her parents disappeared seven years ago while driving her best friend home, Tress lost everything.

Tress Montor knows that her family used to mean something-until she didn’t have a family anymore. Welcome to Amontillado, Ohio, where your last name is worth more than money, and secrets can be kept. Most characters are white.In the first book of this suspenseful YA duology, award-winning author Mindy McGinnis draws inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe and masterfully delivers a dark, propulsive mystery in alternating points of view that unravels a friendship. As the first book in a duology, the story ends in a cliff-hanger, which heightens anticipation for the second installment. Their linked tragedy and trauma is expressed in prose that is by turns gritty and heart-rending, and they join a lineup of strong, flawed, and intriguing McGinnis main characters. McGinnis draws heavily upon the works of Edgar Allan Poe to deliver a gripping modern retelling of “The Cask of Amontillado.” Tress and Felicity are expertly fleshed out the chapters are written from alternating viewpoints of the two girls across their entire friendship. Sick of being the butt of everyone’s jokes, Tress has a plan to get Felicity to talk-one that involves a costume party in the crumbling Usher House, an empty coal chute, and a pile of bricks. Felicity was with the Montors the night they vanished, but she’s worked so hard to make the community forget she was there that she herself doesn’t remember what happened. What isn’t perfect is that her former best friend, Tress, won’t even look at her.

Felicity Turnado doesn’t have a storied surname and everything that’s perfect in her life she’s earned on her own: her grades, her popularity, and the respect of the community. The town has turned its back on her, and she wants answers-or revenge. Now she lives on the Amontillado Animal Sanctuary-what the locals call “the White Trash Zoo”-with her alcoholic grandfather Cecil and a motley assortment of animals. Gr 9 Up–Tress Montor lost everything the night her parents disappeared seven years ago: her family, her friends, and the respect her last name usually demands in the town of Amontillado.

The initial insult book