Conversion

As in The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, her well-received debut novel, Howe's first foray into young adult literature finds her examining connections between characters who lived through the Salem witch trials and those who live in the present day. When students in the senior class of St. Joan's Academy, an exclusive and rigorous all-girls school in Danvers, MA, are felled by sudden and inexplicable illnesses, no one knows what to make of it. As senior year progresses and the mysterious ailments spread, student Colleen Rowley begins to wonder if they could be related to Danvers once being known as Salem. Can Colleen discover what happened in Salem and what it has to do with young women in 21st-century Danvers? Howe has crafted a mystery that will keep audiences up listening long past bedtime. Narrator Khristine Hvam has a lot of characters to voice here, and listeners may be hard-pressed to keep track of them all.