The Purgatorium (The Purgatorium Series Book 1)

by Eva Pohler

Seventeen year-old Daphne Janus is surprised when her parents agree to let her accompany her friend to a getaway resort on an island off the coast of California. They haven’t let her out of their sight since last New Year’s Eve, when she could no longer stand the way they looked at her.

Her sister would still be alive if it weren’t for Daphne.

Her friend, Cam, takes her to a mostly uninhabited island with a wildlife preserve on one side and Chumash Indian ruins on the “haunted” side. Daphne decides she will have one last “hurrah” before she finishes what she started last New Year’s Eve. However, things seldom go as planned…

The resort is beautiful, the beach pristine, and the views from the headland amazing. The only thing missing is the boyfriend who left her when she could no longer love anyone. Then strange things begin to happen on the island that soon have Daphne running for her life. She eventually learns that her parents have sent her for experimental “suicide therapy,” but when her horse bucks her off during a trail ride and she becomes lost on the haunted side of the island, she wonders if her parents have sent her there to help her or to punish her.

“The author ably balances the teenager’s suffering with her slowly growing will to live. But everything comes crashing down when one of Dr. Gray’s therapeutic ‘games’ goes terribly wrong and Daphne is left to fend for herself on the most remote part of the island. . . . Spooky touches like the whispering voices in the woods and Daphne’s likeness appearing in a painting in Dr. Gray’s office steadily build tension and supply chills. . . . Flashes of creepiness enhance this island-set YA thriller.” — Kirkus Reviews