The Uninvited

May 4, 2009
Wynne-Jones (Rex Zero, King of Nothing
) creates a tale of twisted family ties that begins with a college coed running from an affair turned sour. Wanting to get as far away as possible from NYU—and the professor who is stalking her—Mimi heads to Canada to stay at her artist father's long-abandoned country cottage. When she arrives, she is startled to find the house occupied by a stranger, Jackson (Jay) Page, a half-brother she didn't know existed. After the siblings agree to temporarily share living quarters, more surprises are in store as personal items go missing and Mimi has the eerie sensation of being watched. In chapters focusing on a local and his mother, readers get hints about the big picture, but suspense remains high as the book races to its climax. The characters have strong voices and personalities—their realness, coupled with the idyllic setting, contrasts starkly (and thrillingly) with the story's dark side. If the number of letches and unbalanced individuals that Mimi attracts appears extreme, readers will probably be too caught up in the action to care. Ages 14–up.

July 1, 2009
Gr 9 Up-Mimi Shapiro, film studies major at NYU, leaves her predatory professor lover and escapes to a remote Canadian cottage that belongs to her father, Marc Soto, a prominent artist who walked out on Mimi and her mom years before. She finds the cottage occupied by Jay Page, a music student who is also Marcs progeny by a local woman. Despite knowing nothing of one another, the half-siblings forge a quick bond and investigate a series of odd occurrences at the cottage. They discover a hidey-hole under a trapdoor in the floor with an escape tunnel, raising alarm that escalates after a break-in. The story unfolds in alternating viewpoints between Mimi and local loner Cramer Lee, yet another secret Marc Soto offspring, who lives nearby with his mentally unstable artist mother. Cramer supports her by working two jobs and spends his spare time working out with weights and spying on Jay and Mimi. Despite the thriller premise, the tension tends to be tepid, bogged down by overly picturesque descriptions of surroundings, clothing, and cuisine. Cramers character is well developed and sympathetic in his pathological shyness and twisted maternal relationship. City girl Mimi enthusiastically takes on rural life and travel by kayak, growing past self-absorption, but Wynne-Jones devotes more space to her possessions than her qualities. Jay remains peculiarly flat for a passionate musician. The complications and improbability of suddenly becoming family thrust upon the three are largely untapped."Joyce Adams Burner, National Archives at Kansas City, MO"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2009
Grades 9-12 After a stormy affair with a professor, NYU student Mimi Shapiro heads to a remote Canadian farmhouse owned by her father, Marc, a famous painter. On arrival in the idyllic riverside setting, though, she finds Jay, a 22-year-old musician, already ensconced in the house. Jay, she discovers, isherhalf-brother, and he welcomes her into his comfortable life with his mother and her lesbian partner. Readers learn long before the newfound siblings, however, that Marc fathered another child: Cramer, a twentysomething loner who supports his mentally unstable mother. Is he the sole intruder who stalks and then breaks into the river house? The distance between what readers and characters know creates the storys central coil of tension, and Wynne-Jones addsextra measures of creepiness in teen-movie scenes of vulnerable Mimi, alone and threatened in the house, and in the flashes of sexual attraction that the half-siblings share. The mysterys violent conclusion will shock many, but its Wynne-Jones atmospheric prose and sophisticated exploration of elemental coming-of-age themes that will involve readers most.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2009
After an affair with a professor, Mimi flees to her father's cottage in the Canadian wilderness. She finds it already inhabited by a young man, and the two soon discover they're half-siblings. A disturbing problem remains: somebody is watching the house and breaking in. Wynne-Jones has consistently raised the bar for literary thrillers, and this may be his best one yet.

(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from May 1, 2009
Mimi Shapiro, having finished her freshman year at NYU (including a disastrous affair with her professor), has fled to her father's cottage in the Canadian wilderness for some peace of mind, but when she arrives, she finds the cottage already inhabited by a young man. The two soon discover that they are half-siblings, and while their initial confrontation yields to a strong friendship, a disturbing problem remains: somebody has been watching the house and repeatedly breaking in, taking small things at first and then more expensive items. The stalker has his own share of problems-namely an unstable mother and her criminal boyfriend-but the possibility of multiple intruders gradually unfolds, complicating the plot. For Mimi, the climactic confrontation furthers a keener appreciation of her family-"this most unlikely of families." Wynne-Jones has consistently raised the bar for literary thrillers: The Boy in the Burning House (rev. 11/01) and A Thief in the House of Memory (rev. 5/05) showcased his talents for suspenseful plotting, nuanced characterization, atmospheric sense of place, and humanistic themes; but The Uninvited may be the best one yet.

(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)