The Leaf Reader

Product Description

Like a contemporary take on Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle, Marnie Wells comes face-to-face with the occult, discovering she can tell the future by reading tea leaves. Marnie Wells knows that she creeps people out. It's not really her fault; her brother is always in trouble, and her grandmother, who's been their guardian since Mom took off is... eccentric. So no one even bats an eye when Marnie finds an old tea-leaf-reading book and starts telling fortunes. The ceremony and symbols are weirdly soothing, but she knows-and hopes everyone else does too-that none of it's real. Then basketball star Matt Cotrell asks for a reading. He's been getting emails from someone claiming to be his best friend, Andrea Quinley, who disappeared and is presumed dead. Rumor has it Matt and Andrea were romantically involved, though they'd always denied it. A faint cloud of suspicion still hangs over Matt. But Marnie sees a kindred spirit- someone who, like her, is damaged by association. Suddenly the readings seem real. And they're telling Marnie things about Matt that make him seem increasingly dangerous. But she can't shake her initial attraction to him. In fact, it's getting stronger. And that could turn out to be deadly.Like a contemporary take on Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle, Marnie Wells comes face-to-face with the occult, discovering she can tell the future by reading tea leaves. Marnie Wells knows that she creeps people out. It's not really her fault; her brother is always in trouble, and her grandmother, who's been their guardian since Mom took off is... eccentric. So no one even bats an eye when Marnie finds an old tea-leaf-reading book and starts telling fortunes. The ceremony and symbols are weirdly soothing, but she knows-and hopes everyone else does too-that none of it's real. Then basketball star Matt Cotrell asks for a reading. He's been getting emails from someone claiming to be his best friend, Andrea Quinley, who disappeared and is presumed dead. Rumor has it Matt and Andrea were romantically involved, though they'd always denied it. A faint cloud of suspicion still hangs over Matt. But Marnie sees a kindred spirit- someone who, like her, is damaged by association. Suddenly the readings seem real. And they're telling Marnie things about Matt that make him seem increasingly dangerous. But she can't shake her initial attraction to him. In fact, it's getting stronger. And that could turn out to be deadly.
Emily Arsenault worked as a lexicographer at Merriam-Webster for four years after graduating from Mount Holyoke College. She and her husband were US Peace Corps volunteers in South Africa and now live in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, with their daughter. This is her first young adult novel.