Candice, a twelve-year-old girl who was living in Atlanta has to temporarily move back to her grandma’s old house in a rural town along with her mom, she comes across a letter that was left to her. The letter opens the mystery her grandma tried, unsuccessfully, to solve. Helping with the mystery is the eleven-year-old boy who lives across the street.
The mystery has never been solved, but if the two young kids can do it, it will help the small town, not to mention the millions of dollars they’d be getting.
The clues are difficult to figure out, and the friendship between Candice and Brandon grow as they work on this puzzle. Mixed into all the clue finding and solving are the personal relationship issues that cloud everything.
Candice’s mom and dad are divorcing, and Brandon is facing bullying from the boys in the neighborhood. This is all happening under the discrimination of racism, and living with the pressures of being gay but not yet coming to terms with that.
I have to say that though the main characters are 12 & 11 years old, which would make this an MG read, the racism, drinking, and LGBTQ+ themes make me think this should be considered a YA read.
That caveat having been said, it’s a poignant and insightful look into the difficulties of growing up in the South and having to endure the racism of the time, and to some extent, still today.
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