December 18, 2023
When June rolls around in Little Beach, N.C., a pair of residents and best friends, freckled Callie O’Connell and olive-skinned Talia, renew their “molecular level” bond with vacationing Cleo, who is Black and spending the summer with her grandparents. But this time, rising high school senior Cleo brings along quiet, pale-skinned Polly. While Callie initially feels resentful of Polly’s intrusion into the trio’s days of beach frolics and work at the roller-skating rink, friendship blossoms when Polly reveals her summer project: becoming invisible. Though Callie finds the idea ludicrous, Talia and Cleo are won over by YouTube videos and forums depicting how other young women, through ritual and practice, willed themselves to vanish. As they each contend with toxic romantic relationships, fraught home lives, and the perils of being seen and unseen, Callie’s skepticism fades, especially when the four girls find that the superpower is real—and dangerous. This eloquent, sometimes heartbreaking character study by Van Name (Any Place But Here) explores the liminal space between the precipice of childhood and adulthood. The ending, though predictable, is haunting, and luminous language brightens the often somber subject matter: “Four girls like kites, twisting and colorful, visible from space.” Ages 12–up. Agent: Maria Bell, Sterling Lord Literistic.