Starred review from February 5, 2024
Turk (The Other Side of Perfect) explores grief, friendship, and spiritualism in this stunning summertime genre-bender. Japanese American Natalie Nakada and her best friend Imogen have a yearly
tradition of hiking, sleeping in rented cabins, and skulking around the notoriously haunted Harlow Hotel in Estes Park, Colo., with their families. After Imogen dies in her sleep from an undiagnosed heart condition during one of their trips, Natalie works to process her grief. She finally feels ready to tackle her internship at the Harlow Hotel, where she’ll complete her senior project filming
an audition tape for her favorite ghost-
hunting TV series, but her plan goes
awry when she encounters fellow intern Leander, the writer of her school’s “Truth Hurts” newspaper column and known condescending buzzkill. Forced to
collaborate on their respective projects, Natalie begins seeing Leander in a new light, especially when she learns he’s a
fellow skeptic. As the two work to debunk the many mysteries of the Harlow Hotel, unexplained glimpses of Imogen haunt Natalie. Told via Natalie’s witty and organic first-person voice, this exhilarating novel is many things: an homage to a lost friend, a spine-tingling ghost tale, and a sweet, budding love story. Ages 12–up. Agent: Alexandra Levick, Writers House.
February 15, 2024
After losing her best friend, a teen who's fascinated by the paranormal attempts to move on. Natalie Nakada and her best friend, Imogen Lucas, used to spend summer vacations together at the Harlow Hotel, a popular haunted site in Estes Park, Colorado. Then, a year ago, Imogen passed away suddenly due to an undiagnosed congenital heart condition. Following lots of therapy, Natalie's ready to tackle her senior project: filming an audition for the TV show Ghost Chasers: Teen Investigators at the Harlow Hotel. But she's dismayed to learn that "killjoy" classmate Leander Hall--a New York transplant who insults everyone in his column in the school paper--will be there, too. For Leander, it's personal. He reveals that his widowed mother was exploited by the hotel's resident medium, Madame Althea, and manipulated into relocating to Colorado. Natalie agrees to help prove she's a fraud, although she's torn when Madame Althea can seemingly communicate with Imogen. Natalie also glimpses what might be Imogen's ghost. Turk explores friendship, self-esteem, grief, and memory in a deftly paced narrative that toggles between flashbacks to Natalie's history with Imogen and the present, in which romantic feelings begin to grow between her and Leander. Eventually, Natalie makes peace with her journey, coming to honor Imogen's confident belief in her potential. Natalie was raised by her Japanese American mom; her biological father, a grad student from Scotland, isn't in the picture. Imogen and Leander are cued white. Heartfelt and moving, with enjoyable paranormal elements. (Fiction. 13-18)
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March 15, 2024
Grades 8-12 *Starred Review* Natalie is brave, and Imogen is smart--that's the way it's always worked. Best friends since they were little, their favorite thing in the world is the two weeks every summer that they get to spend at Estes Park together, hanging out at the notoriously haunted Harlow Hotel. Natalie knows that Imogen is destined for greatness and Ivy League schools, while she herself is destined for pretending to search for the paranormal on their favorite TV show, Ghost Chasers. But when Imogen dies suddenly on their last night at Estes Park from an undiagnosed heart condition, Natalie is left completely unmoored. A year later, having worked through her grief, Natalie returns to Estes Park to film her senior project: an audition tape that will (hopefully) get her on Ghost Chasers: Teen Investigators. She's determined to follow her dream, even though it means putting up with the annoying, pretentious, and extremely attractive Leander Hall, who is also at the Harlow to complete his senior project. But when odd coincidences start to blossom into spooky episodes, Natalie, the die-hard skeptic to Imogen's true believer, must face the possibility that her best friend never really left Estes Park at all. By turns funny, heartbreaking, and beautiful, Turk's sophomore novel deftly handles the complexities of grief, the possibilities of the universe, and the power of belief.
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Starred review from July 19, 2024
Gr 8 Up-While smart, pulled-together Imogen may seem like Natalie's opposite, the two bond over their shared love of horror movies, spending their summers together at the famously haunted Harlow Hotel in Estes Park, CO. Natalie knows Imogen is destined for Ivy League schools and changing the world, while her biggest ambition is to hunt pretend ghosts on the friends' favorite TV show, Ghost Chasers. But when Imogen dies suddenly on their last night together in Estes Park, Natalie's world falls apart. A year later, Natalie feels like she's ready to return to the Harlow Hotel to film her senior project, an audition for Ghost Chasers: Teen Investigators, but when she arrives at the hotel, she sees signs of Imogen everywhere. Is her best friend trying to reach her from beyond the grave? Natalie's skepticism wars with her grief, a battle that's complicated by the fact that the snarky new kid at school, Leander Hall, is also doing his senior project on the Harlow Hotel, and Natalie might be developing feelings for him. Turk blends supernatural elements with a sweet, gentle romance and a moving exploration of grief in this story that's also infused with hope. Natalie is witty and skeptical about the supernatural, but her grief at losing her best friend is palpable on every page as she learns to truly make peace with the loss and open up to all the possibility in the world and in herself. Supernatural touches are light and believable, especially as they're seen as part of the grieving process. Natalie is biracial (Japanese and white); Imogen and Leander are assumed white. VERDICT Hand this heartfelt novel to fans of Dustin Thao's You've Reached Sam and Turk's first novel, The Other Side of Perfect.-Mimi Powell
Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
November 1, 2024
Gr 8 Up-Only death can separate BFFs Natalie and Imogen-which devastatingly happens when Imogen suddenly dies on the last night of their annual summer trip. A year later, Natalie's convinced she's "fine" enough to return to their favorite Harlow Hotel, a haunted landmark where she plans to film an audition tape for ghost-hunting show Ghost Chasers as her senior project. Working with Leander, nobody's favorite killjoy for his insulting "Truth Hurts" column in their school paper, isn't ideal, but his project is also of the (anti-)spiritualist variety. When the local medium insists Imogen is back, Leander shows he's more ally than annoyance. Like Natalie, both Turk and Skaer share mixed-race Japanese backgrounds. Most of Skaer's narration is just fine, although accents are not her specialty (her "German-accented voice" isn't); adding undetermined accents proves unnecessary. Uneven insertions also suggest lazy production. VERDICT Reading over listening is likely the better choice.
Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.