Framed for the murder of her best friend, a young girl joins a super-secret society of teenage assassins to avoid a lifetime behind bars—and discovers her own true self—in this mesmerizing debut novel.
Seventeen-year-old Signal Deere has raised eyebrows for years as an unhappy Goth misfit from the trailer park. When she’s convicted of her best friend Rose’s brutal murder, she’s designated a Class A—the most dangerous and manipulative criminal profile.
To avoid prison, Signal signs on for a secret program for 18-and-under Class As and is whisked off to an abandoned sleep-away camp, where she and seven bunkmates will train as assassins. Yet even in the Teen Killers Club, Signal doesn’t fit in. She’s squeamish around blood. She’s kind and empathetic. And her optimistic attitude is threatening to turn a group of ragtag maniacs into a team of close-knit friends.
Maybe that’s because Signal’s not really a killer. She was framed for Rose’s murder and only joined the program to escape, track down Rose’s real killer, and clear her name. But Signal never planned on the sinister technologies that keep the campers confined. She never planned on the mysterious man in the woods determined to pick them off one by one. And she certainly never planned on falling in love.
Signal’s strategy is coming apart at the seams as the true killer prepares to strike again in Teen Killers Club.
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Gr 9 Up-Tucked in a remote Oregon forest is Camp Naramauke, a seemingly abandoned sleepaway camp but really home to a select group of violent teenagers. It is here that Signal Deere, accused of killing her childhood friend Rose, is brought after her release from juvenile detention, not to be rehabilitated but to be trained to kill without being caught. But Signal, who sports blue hair, hides a secret. She did not kill Rose, and her innocence sets her apart from the campers, who are proudly Class A, the most dangerous criminal distinction. At camp, Signal meets dark-blond Erik, who senses her innocence and wants to prove that she was framed, and Javier, a tall, artistic teen to whom she is drawn. When the campers are sent out on a mission to kill, Signal faces her greatest challenges yet while attempting to escape from the Teen Killers Club. In her debut YA thriller, Sparks creates a contemporary dystopian world and deftly weaves in details about her characters' pasts. Readers may not pick up on the subtle clues about Rose's murder, and the solution is too neatly revealed. Characters' ethnicity and appearance, other than hair color, aren't indicated. VERDICT Many will enjoy the suspense within these pages.-Gillian D'Ambrosio, Rutgers Univ., NJ?(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.