Neverworld Wake

by Marisha Pessl

First published 2018

Beatrice Hartley returns to Wincroft, the seaside estate where she and her five closest friends from Darrow-Harker School once ruled as the beautiful, untouchable group. A year has passed since graduation, and longer since Jim's shocking death shattered their circle. Jim was their creative genius and Beatrice's boyfriend, and questions about his death still consume her. She hopes this reunion at their old gathering place will finally give her answers. The night unfolds awkwardly, filled with forced humor and uncomfortable silences. Beatrice realizes she may never learn the truth. Then a stranger appears at the door with an impossible announcement: time has become trapped, caught on a splinter that can only be freed if the former friends make an unthinkable choice. Beatrice suddenly faces her last chance to uncover what really happened to Jim and to reclaim her life. The Neverworld Wake begins.

Genres: mystery, contemporary, thriller, young-adult

Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, suspenseful

Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator

Setting: Wincroft, Darrow-Harker School

Period: a year after graduation

328 pages · Hardcover · Delacorte Press

Content warnings: mental-illness

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