Mistik Lake
by Martha Brooks

    MISTIK LAKE by Martha Brooks
    Category:  Contemporary
    Age Recommendation:  Grades 9+
    Release Date:  8/21/07
    Publisher:  Farrar, Straus and Giroux
    Reviewed by:  JodiG.
    Rating:  5 Stars


    For some people, the times in their lives in which everything finally comes together are the same times that
    everything falls apart.

    Meet Odella, a teenage girl whose family is drowning in secrets. Odella and her two sisters are adjusting to the
    fact that their mother has abandoned them to move to Iceland with another man. Now they are faced with their
    mother’s death. Odella must now deal with questions about her mother that may remain unanswered. Why did
    her mother drink so much? What really happened during that accident at Mistik Lake when her mother was a
    teenager? Why doesn’t her Aunt Gloria visit anymore? And why is it that everyone in Mistik Lake and Manitoba
    seem to know the answers to Odella’s questions?

    Odella’s life isn’t all bad. There is Jimmy Tomasson, the boy Odella met last summer. Jimmy has come back into
    her life and Odella is thrilled to have him. But even Jimmy seems to know more about Odella than she does.

    MISTIK LAKE is the story of two generations of family and the secrets they share. Author Martha Brooks tells
    the story through the viewpoint of three different characters: Odella, Aunt Gloria, and Jimmy. This compelling
    story will pull you along, tempting you with the promise of tantalizing secrets. More than that, MISTIK LAKE
    demonstrates how far the damage from those secrets can reach.