Midnight on Beacon Street

DEBUT It’s 1993, and a normally sleepy New Jersey town is experiencing a rash of break-ins. Amy, an anxious kid who loves horror movies from the ’70s and ’80s, is the local babysitter, and tonight she is headed to single mom Eleanor’s house to watch Mira and Ben. Verona telegraphs from the first page that this will not be an easy night, as the story opens at midnight—with Ben covered in blood. Told in short chapters, this intensely unnerving novel moves swiftly, while well-placed flashbacks provide the necessary background details to flesh out the main characters and anchor the story in its perfectly rendered setting. Both Amy and Ben are compelling narrators, whose different perspectives enhance the full gamut of emotions this book elicits. Readers will want to gulp this one down all at once.