MARLENA

Narrator Emma Galvin brings a slightly gritty yet vulnerable-sounding voice to the main character in this audiobook. When 15-year-old Cat moves to rural Michigan, she becomes friends with Marlena, who is troubled, manic, and dangerous. Unsupported by dysfunctional parents, Cat maneuvers the minefields of peer pressure in a world filled with alcohol, drugs, and poverty. As Cat tells her own story, the listener feels a heightened sense of danger and suspense. How is it that Marlena is found drowned in six inches of water in the woods later that year? The story is told in flashbacks when Cat is an adult, and the details of her experience are revealed as a haunting yet tender story of growing up. L.M.A. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2017]