A Line in the Dark - Softcover

Lo, Malinda

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0593618394 ISBN 13: 9780593618394

Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers, 2022

Synopsis

“A twisty, dark psychological thriller that will leave you guessing til the very end."—Teen Vogue

“[A] riveting read…"—NPR

The line between best friend and something more is a line always crossed in the dark.
 
Jess Wong is Angie Redmond’s best friend. And that’s the most important thing, even if Angie can’t see how Jess truly feels. Being the girl no one quite notices is OK with Jess anyway. If nobody notices her, she’s free to watch everyone else. But when Angie begins to fall for Margot Adams, a girl from the nearby boarding school, Jess can see it coming a mile away. Suddenly her powers of observation are more a curse than a gift.
 
As Angie drags Jess further into Margot’s circle, Jess discovers more than her friend’s growing crush. Secrets and cruelty lie just beneath the carefree surface of this world of wealth and privilege, and when they come out, Jess knows Angie won’t be able to handle the consequences.
 
When the inevitable darkness finally descends, Angie will need her best friend.
                               
“It doesn’t even matter that she probably doesn’t understand how much she means to me. It’s purer this way. She can take whatever she wants from me, whenever she wants it, because I’m her best friend.”
 
A Line in the Dark is a story of love, loyalty, and murder.


★ "Mesmerizing."—Kirkus, starred review.

About this title

About the Author

Malinda Lo is the New York Times bestselling author of Last Night at the Telegraph Club, winner of the National Book Award, the Stonewall Book Award, and the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, as well as Michael L. Printz and Walter Dean Myers honors. Her debut novel Ash, a Sapphic retelling of Cinderella, was a finalist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award, the Andre Norton Award for YA Science Fiction and Fantasy, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and the Lambda Literary Award. Malinda’s short fiction and nonfiction has been published by The New York Times, NPR, Autostraddle, The Horn Book, and multiple anthologies. She lives in Massachusetts with her wife and their dog.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

This is what I remember: the leather box lying open on the marble kitchen island; inside it a bed of black satin cradling a golden gun. It’s small enough to look like a toy.

Across the kitchen, Angie opens the back door, letting in a freezing blast of winter air. She looks upset, and I’m pulled to her almost involuntarily. All I want to do is make sure she’s okay, and it doesn’t even matter that she probably doesn’t understand how much she means to me.
It’s purer this way. She can take whatever she wants from me, whenever she wants it, because I’m her best friend.

Margot comes inside behind Angie, grabbing her hand. “Please,” she says. Angie doesn’t pull away. She doesn’t even see me.

The room spins. My tongue is thick from the syrup of too many drinks. I have beached up against the edge of the island, the marble cutting into my stomach, and the box is right in front of me. The gun is engraved with leaves and flowers, and it looks like a charm you might wear on a bracelet next to a miniature dagger and a coil of rope.

I reach for it. The metal is cool, the gun heavier than I expected. It’s pretty. The vines seem to come alive, twining around the grip and the barrel, ending in the small dark muzzle: a silent, open mouth.

Someone says my name.

Ryan, Margot’s best friend, lunges toward me from the other side of the island. She’s an avenging demon of the ice princess variety, blond and pale with her silver dress glittering over pushed-up breasts while she points her finger at me.

“Liar.”

Angie is beside me, her face a mask of shock. “What the hell are you doing?” she demands. “Let’s go.”

It takes me a second to realize she wants to leave. With me.

She takes my hand, pulls the gun away. Her fingers are so cold it’s as if they’d been dipped in a bucket of ice, but they still send an electric jolt all the way through my vodka-induced emotional padding.

Angie puts the gun back in the box. Ryan picks it up, curling her finger around the trigger.

Edition details

• Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0593618394
• ISBN 13: 9780593618394
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288