Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys: The Big Lie Vol. 1 by Anthony Del Col and Werther Dell'Edera

In the same fashion as Riverdale comes The Big Lie. Here, Joe and Frank Hardy are suspects in the murder of their father, Fenton Hardy. He had been a cop under trial for corruption, and the shame seems to have led him to shoot himself. The comic opens with Joe and Frank under interrogation. They had been at the Bobbsey twins' party during the murder, but there was an hour of time where nobody could place them.

The whole thing is actually a plan masterminded by Nancy Drew. They are trying to make the police suspect the Hardy boys and meanwhile they are trying to find the real killer, who they suspect is another cop. The three teen detectives have to get their hands dirty to catch the real murderer. They cheat in an underground poker game in order to get on the radar of the Rovers, major drug dealers. It becomes even more complicated when it seems like Nancy's father, Carson Drew, was involved in the corruption and may even be the one who killed Fenton Hardy.

It's all incredibly gritty detective stuff. Plus, they all have smart phones now. There are references to other retro children's book characters, the Rover Boys, Tom Swift, and the Bobbsey Twins. The whole thing ends with the Hardy Boys and Nancy catching the killer, but hints at even bigger corruption and darker forces orchestrating the murder. Which leads to the second volume of the series.

Bone Gap by Laura Ruby

"He was tired of everyone believing they knew everything there was to know about him, as if a person never grew, a person never changed, a person was born a weird and dreamy little kid with too-red lips and stayed that way forever just to keep things simple for everyone else..."

Bone Gap is the typical small rural town. The people all know each other, and they know everything going on. They know all the rumors, such as the one about the ghost who eats leftovers at the house it haunts. Most of the rumors in Bone Gap involve the fields of corn. They say that the corn talks. Some even say that the corn walks around on its own.

Brothers Finn and Sean have lived in Bone Gap their entire lives. Their father is dead and their mother ran off to marry an orthodontist. Sean had been planning to go away to medical school and become a doctor. He gave up his dreams to take care of Finn and make sure that his younger brother graduates high school. Where Sean is responsible and serious, Finn is dreamy. He never meets anyone's eye. Everyone talks about how handsome Finn is, but also how strange he is.

Things shifted when the boys found a girl in their barn. Rosa showed up out of the blue...and disappeared the same way. During her brief stay, Sean lightened up, even laughed. Finn also had a bond with Rosa, as did everyone else in Bone Gap. It was a great blow when she left. Finn adamantly insists that she was abducted. Nobody believes him, especially because he can't describe the kidnapper's face. All he can say is that the man looked like a scarecrow. The man who kidnapped Rosa keeps confronting poor Finn, threatening to hurt him and everyone he loves if he doesn't stop looking for Rosa. Unfortunately, no one else ever sees the man.

It turns out that Rosa was abducted. A strange man took her and has been holding her in a series of strange places. Every day, the man asks the same question, "Do you love me yet?" Rosa tries to escape, to break out, find a weapon, even stabs the man. In spite of her efforts, she keeps waking up in a new place, still captive.

Meanwhile, Finn starts to spend time with a girl named Petey, the beekeeper's daughter. She is known for her bad attitude and her unusual face. Finn and Petey have lots of late night adventures riding Finn's mysterious horse (It's a very fancy horse that just showed up in their barn) through cracks and into alternate dimensions, or something equally odd. Because Finn is really pretty and Petey isn't traditionally attractive, the rest of the town thinks that he is using her. She starts to agree, but not in the same way as everyone else.

Bone Gap was such a weirdo of a book, and I was there for it. It's got that whole magical realism thing going for it. It's been a while since I've actually read it, but believe me, it was good.  

A Semi-Definitive List of Worst Nightmares by Krystal Sutherland

"One great fear to rule your life. One great fear to take it. There was no escaping her fate and no way to save the members of her family from theirs; this Esther's grandfather had told her since she was a child..."

The center of A Semi-Definitive List of Worst Nightmares is the Solar family. They have been cursed by Death himself. Reginald Solar met a man during the Vietnam War who he believed was an apprentice to Death. Since then, every Solar has been cursed with one great fear. That fear will consume them and eventually be what kills them.

Esther doesn't know what her fear is yet. Her twin brother Eugene is afraid of the dark. Their house is full of lamps and candles, and every light switch is taped on at all times. Shadowy creatures come from the dark trying to take him away. The twins' father developed agoraphobia. One day he went into the basement and just never left. He stays down there, all alone, surrounded by Christmas decorations. Despite suffering multiple strokes, he refuses to leave. Their mother is afraid of being unlucky, something that started after her husband went into the basement. She spends all her time and all the family's money at the casino. She also spent a thousand dollars on a rooster that is supposed to be a goblin.

Because of this somewhat interesting family life, Esther dreams of moving out on her own after high school. To fund this dream, she sells secret underground baked goods to her classmates. Sugar and junk food are banned, so she makes a decent profit. One day after selling her wares at her grandfather's nursing home, she encounters a boy she once knew: Jonah Smallwood. She loved him in Kindergarten and they were really close, but he moved away suddenly. Now, he is crying and bruised at the bus stop. He proceeds to con her out of her newly earned $55, her grandmother's bracelet, and even her fruit roll up. It's a non-traditional way to start a romance, that's for sure.

Jonah is the one who convinces Esther to face her fears. He had also taken her notebook with her list of fears. She decided to write down anything that seemed mildly frightening. Then she could avoid said thing and it would never become her great fear. Jonah has the idea to conquer each of the fears. Esther figures that if she takes enough risks, Death will start to pay attention and she can make him reverse the curse. With Jonah's help, she conquers one fear every Sunday, starting with #50: lobsters.

This book was terribly charming. I LOVED Esther and Jonah. They were adorable. Jonah rescues a little kitten he ran over with his moped, and he names the disabled baby Fleayonce Knowles. Esther constantly wears costumes, dressing like Wednesday Adams, Eleanor Roosevelt, or Indiana Jones. The interactions between Jonah and Esther's father are also really sweet. Jonah is incredibly kind to him, promises to eat dinner with him. She tells him that he doesn't have to do it, but Jonah likes her dad. You can tell that her dad appreciates the company, which kind of breaks my heart.

There was also a lot of dark stuff. I didn't expect so much darkness, including a very upsetting suicide scene. The ending is also kind of ambiguous about whether the Solar curse was real or not. Was it a curse placed by Death himself or a family history of mental illness, self-fulfilling prophecies, and coincidences? There isn't a definitive answer, and it kind of feels like the book is trying to have it both ways. I didn't really mind, though. I enjoy the openendedness.