Bethany Griffin (Handcuffs) brings new life to Edgar Allan Poe's 1842 classic short story of the same name.

A plague known as the Weeping Sickness has devastated society, killing an untold number of victims. Survivors face a life in which corpse collectors make daily visits. The few wealthy citizens purchase porcelain masks that filter the diseased air and make it safer to breathe. As the daughter of a renowned scientist, Araby Worth lives a life of privilege and luxury. She and her friend April spend their nights at the famed Debauchery Club, where their brief escapes offer Araby respite from the guilt she feels over her twin brother's death. When Araby becomes entangled with two young men, her life becomes complicated by far more than romance. Her love triangle is surprisingly fresh: the rivals know of one another and both prove themselves alternately trustworthy and dangerous. Two revolutions loom, and everyone has an agenda. Trust is a luxury no one can afford.

Griffin's novel pays homage to Poe's story with Gothic overtones, and updates it with well-placed touches of steampunk. She specifies neither time nor place, so readers may experience the novel as a turn-of-the-century tale or a futuristic dystopia. To Griffin's credit, this makes her story more accessible, bridging across time. Thanks to Griffin's strong character development, none of the characters' motives are clear, and no one is predictable. In this world, someone who proclaims love is just as likely to murder as the one who seems aloof. --Kyla Paterno, retail coordinator and blogger, Garfield Book Company.

Discover: A dark homage to Edgar Allan Poe's story, in which safety and trust are relative, and the air itself is toxic.

Parker Prescott is the younger sister of Paige Prescott, and this accident of birth order has pretty much defined her throughout her life. She is less pretty, less popular, less troublesome to her parents, who have wanted and needed to focus on their fiery blond firstborn and later on their only son, born after several miscarriages and with a blazing case of ADHD. Parker copes with what she feels is her lesser-than status by keeping her emotions under tight control, so when she meets a boy who challenges that control she is immediately drawn to him. The draw is so scary though, that she pulls away, or at least tries to. Her feelings keep bringing her back, and he is willing to take Parker on whatever terms she offers, though he prefers her sexy side. This is where the novel is complex, deliberately confusing, and psychologically original: the boyfriend is never given a name, and Parker’s suspicion’s of his infidelity or his interest in her as a prize rather than a person prove utterly unfounded. Instead, he passes every test and fields every mixed signal she throws at him. Meanwhile she finds that her impressions of a lot of things in her life have been colored by her sickly green outlook, from her sister’s perfection, to her blog-maligned position in the school hierarchy, to her parents’ ideas of who she is. Plot threads of the reputation-wrecking blog and her sister’s stalker-turned-savior keep the narrative line from being oppressively internal, but there is still a whole lot of navel gazing going on here; give this to fans of Sarah Dessen who like their main characters inwardly focused, their romances and family relationships complicated, and their endings happy.

Not a novel for young teens, Griffin's book grippingly recounts a teenager's obsessive love story. Her characters are vivid, and readers will ache right along with Parker. Solid subplots round out this great debut.

Summary: Parker is in love. But they're broken up...kind of. She aches for him, but she's confused. With her perfect married sister always hanging around, the vicious blog at school posting racy pics of her and her parent's money problems, it's no wonder Parker's having a hard time figuring it all out.