Fun Reads Friday: “Remarkables”

Margaret Peterson Haddix has done it again. I don’t know how she manages to combine mystery, adventure, and science fiction into one middle grade novel that even parents like to read (check out my blog on crossover fiction), but she does it with hard-hitting sub-plots. The Remarkables addresses bullying, guilt, and depression without any in-your-face lectures or scenes that make readers want to close the book because it makes them sad.

Eleven-year-old Marin (love the name) is forced to move from Illinois the summer before her first year in middle school because her mom snagged an awesome job in Pennsylvania. Soon after arrival, Marin climbs a backyard tree and spies a group of teens on the patio of the house behind hers. The teens are having a great time until . . . they disappear. Marin almost falls out of the tree.

It had to be that these teenagers were just a bunch of friends. But Marin kept thinking they acted more like family.
Maybe some or all of them were adopted. Maybe they were foster brothers and sisters.
Marin blinked, trying to figure it out.
And in that one instant, every single one of the nine teenagers vanished.
— Remarkables

She later meets her next-door neighbor, Charley, who has watched these otherworldly teens the past two years. With this in common, she thinks it’ll be easy to befriend him. But it’s not. He’s harboring lots of secrets that she needs to unravel to gain his trust. The only problem is that he doesn’t want to be around her, or anyone for that matter.

The reader soon learns that Marin has secrets of her own—ones that revolve around her best friends from her old school. And while her parents are putting on a brave front, the fact remains that her father still hasn’t found a job. Add a new baby brother to the mix, and poor Marin is beyond discombobulated.

Nevertheless, she’s determined to figure out the mystery of the vanishing teens. When Marin discovers that one girl is a dead ringer for a sixteen year old who didn’t survive a fire in the house behind hers, she’s able to enlist Charley’s help. They launch a full-scale investigation into the teen friends, whom they’ve dubbed the “Remarkables.”

The plot twist at the end blew my mind. And, I have to admit, I may or may not have cried a little. MPH is brilliant. I’ve devoured her books for years. If you’re looking for more mysteries to keep you up past your bedtime, check out MPH’s Shadow Children series.

Have you read any of MPH’s books? If so, which are your favorites?