Bliss.

Myracle, Lauren (author).

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It’s the summer of 1969, and Bliss has been unceremoniously dumped by her hippie parents into the custody of her grandmother. Soon Bliss finds herself adjusting to life as a freshman at a fancy Atlanta school—and it’s a lot different from life on the commune. Although she quickly finds “normal” friends, she is drawn to Sandy, a gruff and unpopular girl with a long-standing grudge against Sarah Lynn, the icy beauty of the freshman class. The push and pull of the school drama is engaging enough, but there’s another element pressurizing the situation: an unsettling voice calling to Bliss from inside one of the school buildings, a voice somehow related to strange blood rituals and a long-ago suicide. Myracle is running on all cylinders here, exercising an agile teenage drama, a Stephen King–like yarn of high-school horror, a cautionary tale of ’60s race relations, and some affecting social commentary: each chapter begins with a period media quote, and the startling mix of Andy Griffith and Charles Manson perfectly distills the nation’s teetering into terror. The conclusion is a bit awkward, but the lead up is unbearably tense and will have readers buzzing about the audacious plot twist that none of them saw coming. Bonus: the sequel, Rhymes with Witches (2005), has already been published.