Tighter

by Adele Griffin

When 17-year-old Jamie arrives on the idyllic New England island of Little Bly to work as a summer au pair, she is stunned to learn of the horror that precedes her. Seeking the truth surrounding a young couple's tragic deaths, Jamie discovers that she herself looks shockingly like the dead girl—and that she has a disturbing ability to sense the two ghosts. Why is Jamie's connection to the couple so intense? What really happened last summer at Little Bly? As the secrets of the house wrap tighter and tighter around her, Jamie must navigate the increasingly blurred divide between the worlds of the living and the dead.

Brilliantly plotted, with startling twists, here is a thrilling page-turner from the award-winning Adele Griffin.

Genres: Young Adult, Mystery, Paranormal, Horror, Ghosts, Fantasy, Thriller

216 pages, Hardcover

First published May 10, 2011

About the author

from Wikipedia:

Adele Griffin is the author of over thirty highly-acclaimed books across a variety of genres, including Sons of Liberty and Where I Want to Be, both National Book Award Finalists.

Her debut adult novel The Favor explores themes of friendship, surrogacy, and nontraditional family building.

Find her on TikTok at @adelegriffinbooks and Instagram at @adelegriffin or www.adelegriffin.


website: www.adelegriffin.com


Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/adelegriffi...

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Adele-G...


Open Road Media interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSa3P...

Reviews

[Small Review · Rating 4 out of 5]

Billed as a loose retelling of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, Tighter at first follows the original plot closely and then spirals into Adele’s unique creation. The transition is flawless, using the setup and features of the original story as a backdrop and then spinning the reader into a story that is both completely different and yet still fully compliments The Turn of the Screw. It is not necessary to have read or even liked The Turn of the Screw to enjoy Tighter. The story updates and pays homage to the original, but it is a fully developed story that stands perfectly well on its own.

I have read The Turn of the Screw, so I had a ton of fun picking out all of the little references and ways Adele wove in the original with her new story. I am curious to hear a review of this book from the perspective of someone who has not read The Turn of the Screw.

As with the original, I did not like the main character of this book. Jamie has an attitude, is addicted to prescription pills, and makes terrible choices. She isn’t someone I would want to be friends with at all. If I wasn’t familiar with the original, I think I might have been turned off to the story because of my inability to connect with Jamie. Usually, if I can’t connect with the main character (or even like them), then I stop reading the book.

Having read the original, however, I knew that you’re not supposed to necessarily like the main character, so please, please, please don’t let Jamie turn you off to this book! The beauty of James’ book is not just that it is a chilling ghost story, but that it is also a fantastic study of an unreliable narrator. Both the ghostly happenings and the unreliable narrator are retained in Tighter, leaving the reader constantly questioning whether the events of the story are a result of a supernatural haunting, Jamie’s state of mind, or a frightening mix of both.

Even though I didn’t like Jamie as a person, she was a fantastic narrator. Jamie’s voice is strong and clear. Her haziness and confusion as a result of the pills she is constantly popping amplifies the reader’s uncertainty and sense of peril, but the plot never feels convoluted or difficult to follow. The pieces of the mystery come together at a good pace, but only half of these pieces are apparent clues.

There are clues laid from the very first page, but these are the type of clues that you don’t realize are important until the climax of the story. At that point everything clicks into place and I couldn’t help but immediately flip back and read whole passages of the book again with this new knowledge. I kept gleefully exclaiming, “Ah ha! I see it now!” realizing how, even having read the original, Adele’s subtle tweaks added an entirely new feature that completely surprised me and left me delighted. These features make this book an excellent candidate for rereading. I think I would discover and notice a ton of little hints and clues I missed on my first reading.

After the startling climax the story winds down and I felt content with the way Adele chose to end the book. But then…just when I thought the events were resolved one way a final bit of information on the very last page turns events around again and all of my suspicions and questions I thought were resolved came flooding back again. This was excellent! I didn’t realize the ending could get better, but then it did! I loved the way the author chose to end this book and I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better resolution.

The only reason I rated this four instead of five stars is because I would have liked a little more. This may be a bit unfair, but because the author’s writing was so enthralling and because her plot twists were so exciting I found myself wanting more. I wish the ghostly parts had been expanded just a little bit more. They were scary (and some really were downright chilling), but I wanted them to be just a little bit scarier, or more of them. I wish the secrets Jamie uncovered about the deaths were just a little…juicier and developed just a little bit more.

Adele is a National Book Award finalist and it is easy to see why. Tightly plotted, well paced, and beautifully written, Tighter pulled me in from the very beginning and, days after having finished, it still hasn’t let me go. I read this one for my Gothic Reading Challenge, and I highly recommend it to readers looking for a good ghost story, a contemporary read, a classic retelling, or a creepy Gothic tale. This is the first book I have read by Adele Griffin, but it won’t be the last.


Book received through Goodreads First Reads program in exchange for an honest review.

Originally posted at Small Review

I received a copy of this book for review through Goodreads First Reads free of charge in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my review.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clever modern take on Henry James's classic Turn of the Screw.

Is Jamie really being haunted by the ghosts? Or is it her constant pill popping? Or worse..... could it be she's just CRAZY? That's the mystery here and one that's extremely well developed. Tighter's relatively short length keeps the plot taut thereby ratcheting up the tension. The end was a tad rushed, but the final twist makes the story an instant reread.

A near perfect YA psychological thriller.

[Michelle, the Bookshelf Stalker · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great twisted book. I wanted a short, easy book to read while I'm recovering from surgery. Something that I didn't have to focus too much on. Surpise, suprise, surpise. This book was seriously screwy and I loved it.

First, Jamie is a pill popping girl with lots of issues. Her mom sends her to Little Bly to work as an au pair. There is hints that Jamie's mom knows that Jamie is a bit more screwed up and is trying to "save" Jamie by sending her away.

Jamie quickly learns that something is seriously wrong in Little Bly. Little Bly has a scary history involving Isa's (the young girl that Jamie is an Au Pair to) former babysitter (the now dead Jessie). Not only has Jessie come back as a ghost but so has Peter, Jessie's dead boyfriend. Another twist- Jessie and Jamie look almost identical.

The book is full of crazy twists. Just try to think you know what will happen, I dare you. You'll be wrong. What a surpise book.

It's really intense and I don't recommend it for teens under 12.

Forgot to mention-

Even if you've read you can still love this book and be surprised by the twists. I read The Turn of the Screw long ago but this book still managed to surpise me.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wanted: One au pair, preferably the splitting image of this dead girl who died in a plane crash one year ago. Ability to down enough narcotics to take down a squadron of UFC fighters = A HUGE PLUS. Crushed on your high school teacher hardcore then tried to make a move but got rejected? NO PROBLEM. Bilingual (can understand Lisp. I think it's an Asian language but idk). The better you can conceal you are a dirty, commie townie = $$$. If you feel you are qualified for this position, hmu - Miles McRae

Being that I've never read Henry James' The Turn of the Screw, everything in Tighter was shiny and brand new (I, um, might have put a dent in a wall somewhere towards the end of this book. This is *brand new* in my heart ok).

After her advances toward her high school teacher are rejected (not just rejected, but also put in a blender on high, made into a jelly, then slathered on toast so wife and husband can cackle as they eat) and suffering a back injury during track, seventeen-year-old Jamie Atkinson falls into the level of depression that made Winona shoplift, Britney twist a parasol, and moi buy $2500 worth of fancy fashion magazines (WAIT WHAT I THOUGHT WE WERE GOING TO KEEP THAT ON THE DOWN LOW, SELF. H8 YOU). When Jamie's mom sets her up with an au pair position with her muy rico friend, Jamie naturally dreads the idea of it, but being that her best friend and her twin siblings have peaced out for the summer, she rolls with it.

Jamie lands (she didn't actually land there, she took a ferry, but let's pretend she parachuted there for extra drama) on the New England island of Little Bly where the rich and the locals are up in erryone's bizness. In her flawless mansion by the sea, Jamie spends her time procrasti-au pairing ten-year-old Isa, avoiding Isa's prickly fourteen-year-old brother Milo, and desperately trying to get Connie, the housekeeper, to shut the fuck up.

As Jamie learns that Isa's former au pair, Jessie (and her boyfriend, Peter) fell to a bad fate, things begin to go south. Not only is Jamie the splitting image of Jessie, she also feels a pull to the now deceased Peter who seems to be around every corner of the house. Jamie is not only haunted by the tragedy that befell Jessie and Peter and people from her past, she also must endure her addiction to prescription medication which is spiraling out of control. How does she save herself though when it seems that Peter is pulling her in her tighter and tighter?

--

Jamie is fierth protag, I must say that, first of all. Yes, she's addicted to prescription medication and she's in a baaaad state, but that doesn't negate her brilliant insights (like holding back on insulting Connie when she gets into the car with Emory and Aiden despite being tempted to do so by Emory: "I didn’t want to come down too hard on Connie. I got a feeling that while the lifers made fun of her, they also liked her. Connie was what people tended to call “local color” and “a character” — which really meant that off this island, she’d be a complete social reject, but as long as she was here, she was landmark protected) and the fact that when she IS actually au pairing, she's fab with Isa. It's nice seeing a MC with common sense and who doesn't spout their stupid everywhere, it reminds me that we can have nice things.

Whenever I read YA, I pay special attention to the dialogue (especially between teenagers/young adults). Nothing takes me out of a YA novel more than unrealistic dialogue so I'm glad that Tighter's dialogue was A+++. And Mag's acronym MEGO = brill.

Connie's lithp dialogue can be frustrating to read at times. And I mean REALLY frustrating. But it gave for the opportunity to produce this gem, so I ain't too mad:

“Adultth will eat later.” Connie gave me a look. I didn’t care. Silly talk was the only kind of talk I wanted. Au pair trumps housekeeper on that one. “Jethie, you’ll need to look after your and Itha’th kitchen meth.”
Milo snorted. “Hear that, Jeth? Gotta handle your own kitchen meth.”

Though I loved the stuffing out of Tighter, there are a few reasons why this is getting four stars instead of five and they are:

1) Jamie's unrequited love for her high school teacher.
-The first few times she goes on about Sean Ryan, her former high school chemistry teacher, all I could think was scandalous! But as the novel goes on and she constantly brings him up, it gets tiring. The Sean Ryan thing didn't work for me.

2) How Tighter lost its creepy mojo.
-While it's gr8 to see Jamie socialize (after expressing, liek, how completely lonely she was with no one else her age to talk to), it felt like those scenes completely killed the atmosphere the book had been previously maintaining. During those scenes, the book felt like normie YA, and though I enjoy normie YA, I was expecting the creepiness to be maintained until the very end.

Other than those issues, I found Tighter to be well-written and often jarring. Many times throughout the book, Jamie's narrative briefly enters this stream-of-consciousness that mixes nursery rhymes with her expressions of fear. And upon certain revelations, I had myself downing dessert foods to cope (I'm on my second breakfast claw, leeme alone).

Now onto the moments where I gay'd out:

I wanted to say the perfect thing so Sebastian would know how much I’d wanted him to kiss me, but without seeming too extreme about it. “It’s just that I’m not myself tonight,” I said thickly

&

"My head throbbed. My neck, my back, ouch. Where was I?"

The ending omff. g

It was to be expected but nonetheless, it was completely nuts (SORRY JAMIE, ILY BOO). Seeing Connie's letter was a mindfuck in that prior to seeing it, I wrote her off because of her inability to communicate coherently. In her letter though, it's the only time in the book we see her communicating and we can completely understand her. There's something about Connie's letter that is a little sad in that way and I think that's why the novel ends a little bit sad as well.


aLRIGHT. Thank you MTV Cribs Goodreads for visitin' muh crib, can you go away now tho *slowly hovers over X over tab* no really, go away.

[Meagan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not really sure how to talk about this book. It was a nice and interesting read. It kept me hooked throughout the novel and the ending was a big twist. But the ending was a bit of a problem with me. It seemed, not complete. After Jamie throws herself off the cliff it's all very quick to reveal what happened. That 'Milo' wasn't real, it was Jamie's dual personality that Isa happened to share as well. And that Jamie was just hallucinating Pete after all. I think that was the biggest disappointment in the book for me. I really enjoyed this book, don't get me wrong, but the ending I just felt fell flat and didn't seem to fit with the rest of the novel. The novel itself was wonderful. There were absolutely no hints what so ever (until the last twenty or so pages) about what was really going on and I liked that. I would've liked to have seen toward the end more about Isa, who could be suffering from the same thing that Jamie was diagnosed with at the end. Isa's story just seemed to end without a proper ending. Plus the tie in with Jessie and Pete didn't seem complete either with Jamie keeping the ring. There just seemed to be a big thing missing from this book that left me a bit empty on it.

[Circa Girl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I couldn't get through the original story's incredible run-on sentences, and I loved the Netflix mini-series Bly Manor, but I'm aware they took a lot of liberties with the classic plot, so I thought Tighter's modern adaptation would maybe hit a little closer to early themes and give me an idea of what made the Turn of the Screw so iconic.

The setup is initially gripping, I like Jamie as a protagonist, and the pill addiction is a nice foundation for unreliable narration, but it's hard to sustain a gothic atmosphere when Bly Manor is translated into a wasp beach town, the tormented souls haunting the house are just a pair of edge-lord teenagers that had too much time on their hands, and the detective work into the tragedy relies on Facebook. There's also an issue with the dialogue reading a little exposition-y and unnatural, Jamie's nursery rhyme fixation becoming a worn out novelty, and the rushed last third.

[Veronica · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was a modernized and very unfortunate retelling of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw. Which means the author’s only job was the modernization part. This included but was not limited to giving one of the characters with the most amount of dialogue a lisp (reading words like thuthpithuth will make you want to punch yourself in the face) and changing the main character into a teenager with a vocabulary that included words like “unsuckuppy” and “nerderrific” and who has a prescription pill addiction (modern!).

Adjustments to the plot were plain goofy and clearly were not given the sniff test - when the twist is finally revealed it leaves enough plot holes to sink a Carnival cruise ship full of norovirus infected passengers. As Trump would say....”Sad!”

[Tammie]

I didn't get very far into this when I realized I completely disliked the main character, and didn't want to spend any more time reading about her.

[Bonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love a good ghost story. One of my favorites of all time is Heart-Shaped Box. Now that is one freaky book. I was a little skeptical about going into this with high expectations since it is YA and all; it turned out to be one of the darker types of YA books.

Jamie is a very disturbed 17 year-old with an awful pill addiction. After suffering a back injury she hasn’t been able to quite kick the habit. Her mother, concerned with her recent behavior and thinking she may be suffering from depression, helps set her up with a job as an au pair for an old friend on the island of Little Bly in New England. Jamie is skeptical about taking this job but thinks it may in fact be a good idea; that maybe by the time she got back, they’d be gone. They being the two ghosts that haunt her, her Uncle Jim and second cousin Hank… both individuals committed suicide. Jamie has seen them both ever since the night she personally contemplated suicide.

Upon arriving at Little Bly Jamie finds out that the child, Isa, her last au pair Jessie was killed in a plane crash when her boyfriend Peter was flying. Jamie’s unsettled to see how the town residents stare at her… because Jamie is the spitting image of Jessie. It doesn’t help matters when Jamie starts to see Peter and Jessie, ghosts, just like her Uncle Jim and Hank.

The book was certainly a tad unnerving, as can be expected with ghost stories. But the author… her writing style was crazy. Jamie would be in the middle of thinking something and right in the middle she would say something else and have seemingly zero awareness of what she just said For example:

“I knew I needed more socializing than just interacting with Connie and Isa and Milo; even a daily phone call with Mags would have helped, but the longer I stuck with just myself, the more messed up I might become rapping at the windows crying at the locks and it was beginning to bother me how much.”

Crying at the locks? What the hell are you talking about?! What’s going on?? But the writing was great; I loved how it always kept me guessing. And guessing you do… right up until the very end; I gasped. It’s one of those books where when you finally realize what’s going on it makes you have to stop, think, and look back at all that’s happened… makes you rethink everything.

Interested in more of my reviews? Visit my blog!

[Maggie Guerra · Rating 1 out of 5]

Can I have the last 4 days I wasted reading this crap back now?

Ya know that feeling you get when you are so engrossed in a book that you never want it to end? Yeah.... That's not what happened here.

I picked this book up and was ready to dive into the scary mystery that the synopsis had eluded to. From the very first page, I had issues. No joke. It took me 3 days to make it to page 27. This is a rare thing for me. So, you ask, what made me detest this book so much? Let me tell you.

1.) Problem numero uno, Jamie. She may be my least favorite female protagonist ever. Her character was completely flat, lackluster and the fact that she keeps popping pills only made me dislike her more. Why the fuck are you taking random pills and babysitting at the same time?!

2.) Miss Lisp Connie. I swear, I thought my eyes were crossing when she is introduced into the story. She has a lisp, ok... That's fine. We've established that. There was no need to write every fucking thing she said exactly like it would sound. It was irritating having to stop every two seconds to try to figure out what she just said. I nearly stopped reading just because of that.

3.) No backstory. Throughout the book, Jamie thinks about things or events that seem like they should be elaborated on yet are never explained...at all. This happens chapter after chapter and I kept thinking I had skipped a page and missed something. Nope. Didn't miss it cause it isn't there. Don't give me two lines that seem to be indicative of some past trauma only to gloss over them like they were never mentioned in the first place. It's stupid as hell.

4.) The fucking ending. What the hell is this crap! You completely explain the last 200 pages with a rushed, useless and completely maddening ending that is no way shape or form, believable? That's some bullshit! And the fact that the author just makes a serious mental illness seem so completely easy to deal with makes it even worse.

I could keep writing for hours and that still wouldn't cover all my problems with this story. Being based off a classic, you know full well how amazing this plot could have been. It was executed terribly. It was confusing in the worst possible ways and it generally just made me want to throw this atrocity into the fire and forget it ever existed.

[Clover · Rating 4 out of 5]

Battling depression after a back injury during track, Jamie’s mom gets her a job as an au pair for the summer on the island of Little Bly, vacation spot for the uber-wealthy. What she didn’t anticipate is that she is a near look-a-like for the former nanny, a young girl who died in an accident with her boyfriend the previous summer. Or that their spirits would be hanging around the mansion causing mischief and anguish for those left behind.

The story builds from there as Jamie battles her own depression and prescription drug dependency while trying to sort out the mystery of why the ghosts are hanging around. It moves with a slow ethereal quality to the writing with strong interactions with secondary characters and being a teenager just trying to hold it all together and break out of her depression.

And then the last couple of chapters take a turn that I did not see coming. I do not want to even hint at spoiling it, but when the twist comes, it is a shocker. The kind that made me literally suck in a huge breath. I’m glad I was alone or it would have been really embarrassing it was so loud. The kind of twist that had me flying back through the pages to make sure that, yes, all the clues were right there and why didn’t I see it?

I love it when a book can do that—take me totally by surprise. It doesn’t happen often. It wasn’t the type of book I thought it was at all. It was better.

[Lisa Roecker · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the perfect package--this cover is what creepy is made of, to an incredibly descriptive setting, which brought to mind the gorgeous home from the movie Evening (if you've ever seen it), Adele's TIGHTER has it all. From the moment we meet Jamie, we learn that she's suffering from something in her past and to combat the pain, she abuses whatever pills she can get her hands on. I have to say, this character trait, which I've never really read before in YA, is fascinating. Her mind is in a constant fog so when strange events begin to occur, the reader is left to distinguish between Jamie's haze and reality--and really, there's nothing more fun that that.

Add to all of this a summer job on the island of Little Bly caring for a strange, young girl and the shocking resemblance between Jamie and Jessie, a dead girl, and you're off. This book is complete with shocking reveals, like really, really shocking and twists and turns, which leave a bit of a pit in your stomach as you read, but in a good way. I limited my reading time before bed and avoided it all together if I was in the house alone. It's a masterfully-executed twist on a classic and one of the best ghost stories I've read in a long time.

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5.

I had a hard time getting interested in picking this up when I'd put it down. And the twist at the end just...wasn't done as well as other books that have some similar things.

Meh. Not for me. A good pick for those who like mysteries and twists on classic stories.

[Connie T. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting story but the writing had issues.

As the summer progresses, Jamie's hold on reality slips more and more. Is it the pills? Are they helping her to cope or are they making her delusional? (I think her injury should've been stressed a bit more in the beginning of the book. I didn't realize she was still dealing with her pain. I thought it was just an excuse for her addiction.) As a result, Jamie is such an unreliable narrator!

And what about Isa?! She is unlike any 11-year-old that I know. Her innocence and flights of imagination are more like you'd expect to see in an 8-year-old. How is it that she can wake from a sound sleep, announce "Milo's home" and then be instantly asleep again? Does Jamie imagine those episodes? If Jamie imagines it all, then why doesn't Isa think Jamie odd? Who is feeding whose imagination?

I found the shifts between Milo and Peter confusing but this is more or less resolved in the end.

Why does the housekeeper, Connie have a lisp? It didn't promote the plot, unless it was to help Jamie believe Connie was unintelligent? As a reader, the lisp was annoying and at times difficult to decipher. (The lisped words were spelled phonetically.)

Overall, the story was interesting but it didn't seem to make a lot of sense.

[Jodi Lamm · Rating 4 out of 5]

I added Tighter to my to-read list knowing what it was, I'm sure, but somewhere along the way I forgot. All I remembered was that it was a book by Adele Griffin, who was the author of another ghost story I enjoyed: Picture the Dead. I'm glad I forgot that Tighter was a modern YA retelling of The Turn of the Screw because, aside from the chuckle I had when I finally understood the title, I went into the story without every little nuance of the original floating around my head, and that was a good thing. Tighter isn't so much a direct retelling of The Turn of the Screw as an interpretation of it.

1. Was the story fun to read? Yes. Overall I really enjoyed it. It was sufficiently creepy when it needed to be, and I loved catching all its nods to James' original tale. But most of all, I enjoyed the setting. Griffin has the most gorgeous way with atmosphere. Both Picture the Dead and Tighter made such perfect use of their settings. I would love to see more great atmosphere in YA, and particularly in ghost stories where atmosphere is kind of the whole point.

2. Did the characters intrigue me? This is where Tighter fell a bit flat for me, though the original's characters didn't win my heart either. Jamie was hard to like, especially after the way she treated Connie (mocking the woman and hating her before she even got to know her). So when the story took a detour to examine Jamie's relationships with the other kids on the island, I just couldn't bring myself to care. Isa and Milo were more interesting to me than Jamie, but they had an unbelievable air about them. While the children's strangeness made sense in some ways, in others it didn't. The only character I wanted to know more about was Connie, and I got very little of her. We didn't see her because the protagonist didn't see her. She was a nothing to Jamie, and so I feel the story lost one of its most interesting characters to the first person perspective.

3. Did the premise make me think? Absolutely. A modern YA retelling of The Turn of the Screw would have given me plenty to think about all on its own, but Tighter takes things even further. Remember when I said this is more an interpretation than a retelling? Well, it is, though I can't tell you why without spoiling the end. You'll just have to read it for yourself to see what I mean. I do think there's something lost in interpreting The Turn of the Screw so concretely; half its charm lies in its ambiguity. But I also think Griffin's interpretation is a brave one, and it was definitely fun to see someone else's mind take on James' ghost story.

I recommend Tighter to people who enjoyed The Turn of the Screw, but also to those who may be unfamiliar with it and just love a good cerebral ghost story. It is very YA in its feel and tone, so be ready for that. It'll put you off your guard and then slap you upside the head.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review originally posted at: http://supernaturalsnark.blogspot.com...

Actual Rating: 3.5/5

MY THOUGHTS
Tighter is one of those stories that creeps along, events unfolding with a deliberate slowness that causes our bodies to wind up and coil like a spring, just waiting for the moment when we'll be startled into sudden movement. For the duration of this tale we are deliciously tense–though our tenseness is strictly anticipatory rather than derived from a great deal of action or intensity–and we absorb every tiny detail about Jamie and Skylark in search of information that might ease our sense of foreboding. While Jamie's story is slow moving, it is never boring; instead we are kept on high alert as separate incidents and situations begin to fit together and paint a larger picture we are positively desperate to see in its entirety by the end.

Though many aspects of the story cause our exhalations to come in rapid succession and our muscles to ache from the strain of clenching them, there are a few small aspects that are a touch disappointing after all is revealed. For much of the book our attention is drawn to the physical similarities between previous au pair Jessie and current au pair Jamie, leading us to believe there is some significance in this detail or some link between the two young women that is perhaps contributory to Jamie's ability to see the spirits of both Jessie and Peter. However, when all is said and done we find their eerily similar appearance is mere coincidence and is unrelated to the greater picture. We spend so much time hearing about their looks and learning about Jessie as Jamie conducts her informal investigation that we're sure we must be in store for some shocking revelation only to have our sought-after connection between the two women fade to nothingness with the turn of the last few pages.

Tighter does end with a twist that causes us to mentally replay the entire story in an attempt to catch the moments that ought to have tipped us off as to the ending, but once our initial awe passes we realize this particular twist is something we've seen before. All the accumulated tension and anticipation of some disturbing ghostly encounter slowly drains from us rather than exploding outward with the force of our discovery, taking with it the last of our strength and leaving us feeling just a bit unsatisfied. Tighter is certainly a quick and entertaining read, we just can't help but want a more disquieting and memorable conclusion to a tale that's kept us taut with awareness and apprehension the entire time.

Rating: 3.5/5

[Emily]

Little Bly is a postcard picture of sun-bleached sand and blue sky for miles, fresh-fried crab and the smell of sunscreen, beautiful people with windswept hair and sparkling summer mansions. Idyllic and closely-knit, it is the quintessential image of paradise, a town marred by nothing but a hint of upper-class snobbery. Its summer residents are serene and carefree, ensconced in their island's bubble of bliss.

Yes, Little Bly could not be a more enticing vacation destination for the extremely wealthy. But even more so, it could not be a more fitting backdrop for the twisted, thrilling tale that Adele Griffin weaves in Tighter. The island's sunlight and perfection contrast with the story's darkness and grittiness, highlighting every nuance of eeriness.

The setting integrates itself into the mystery, expanding the plot from exposing the details of a girl's death to exposing the details of the island as a whole. As Jamie peels back the layers of the dead girl's story—her tumultuous romances, her free-spirited personality, her shocking death—she also deconstructs Little Bly's flawless image. The island has its share of tragedy and secrets lurking just beneath its exterior, and each new clue proves that its residents are not always as happy and safe as they may seem. Watching Little Bly's gnarled curls of darkness burst through its enameled outer coating will fascinate readers even more than watching the dead girl's mystery unfold.

Even more eerie than the mystery is the protagonist's narration; true to her signature style, Adele Griffin creates a dangerously unreliable narrator. Perpetually laced with prescription drugs and prone to visions of the dead, Jamie's consciousness cannot be trusted. Each page will have readers guessing whether they can rely on the clues she finds or the conclusions she draws—and if anything she sees or says is real. The setting emphasizes Jamie's visions and paranoia; against a backdrop of tranquil vacationers, her anything-but-relaxed mental state seems exceptionally harsh and abnormal.

The thrilling mystery and haunting narration combine to create a story that, when overlaid with the setting's whimsical façade, seems like something out of a Brothers Grimm fairytale—a dangerous version of a well-known, lighthearted story. Thanks to its masterful play between light and dark, Tighter may be the best Griffin book I have read to date. Its mystery enticed me, its setting entranced me, and now neither one will let me go.

This review originally appeared at www.foreverliterary.blogspot.com.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish there were 1/2 stars because I would give this a 3.5*.

I am glad that I tried another of Adele's books, after not caring for "The Julian Game". This book I truly enjoyed and finished in only a matter of hours.

The story is about a girl named Jamie, who is having problems back home, such as depression and addiction to pills. She hurt herself in track, I believe it was, and was prescribed pills for that. She just continued using them to help with her depression, and when they seemed to not help like they used to she resorted to sneaking her parents medications. Her parents are righfully worried about her and are trying to get her out of this funk (they are not aware of her addiction with pills). So one evening while her mother is out at a dinner, she finds Jamie a job as an au pair at an old friends home, looking after his 11yo daughter.

Jamie isn't too eager for this at first, but once she gets there she tries to enjoy herself. But right away, she learns about the au pair, Jessie, from last year, and that the girl is now dead. A fact that was clearly not told to Jamie. Jamie is suspect about this omission and starts to do a little investigating of her own about what happened to Jessie.

While this is going on Jamie is watching Isa (the 11yo girl) and dealing with the snarky attitude of Isa's brother, Milo, who wasn't even supposed to be there and who Jamie hadn't even heard of. Along with Milo, she is also having to deal with Peter, the boyfriend of Jessie, who died with her that night last night. Yes, Jamie can communicate with Peter. She tries to chalk this up to all the pills she has been taking and she does start to get a little freaked out about it when it doesn't stop.

This all comes to a head one night and things take a mean and unexpected twist. How I love twists, especially twists like these.

This was a good ghost story, with good characters and a good storyline. It wasn't too spooky which was OK, although it would have been great if it were more spooky. I wasn't expecting the ending and I think you will be suprised by it too.

[Eva Mitnick · Rating 3 out of 5]

It starts out most promisingly, with a troubled 17-year-old girl named Jamie getting what sounds like a cushy summer job babysitting a rich 11-year-old girl named Isa on a ritzy resort island in New England. Naturally, there has to be a catch. First there's the matter of the tragic death of last year's nanny, Jessie, and her boyfriend Peter. Then there's the dour housekeeper Connie and Isa's disturbing older brother Milo. Finally, there's the matter of that ghost that keeps popping up and doing mischief. Add to all that Jamie's depression and pill-addiction, and it ends up being one heck of a summer.

Until about halfway through the novel, the tension keeps winding tighter and tighter. However, with the introduction of some local teens with whom Jamie interacts, the plot loses some of its tantalizing claustrophobic menace and becomes more mundane. The spookiness ratchets up a notch towards the end, when the reader finally realizes just how unreliable a narrator our Jamie is - but then fizzles out over the anticlimactic last chapter, which could easily have been left off to much better effect.

There are some unanswered questions for readers to ponder - what is really going on at Skylark? Are all the ghostly activities just in Jamie's head? And what's up with Isa, anyway?

Jamie's voice is compelling and will keep most teens reading breathlessly to the very end of the book - especially those who have never read Turn of the Screw.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a modern retelling of The Turn of the Screw - although, pathetically, I can't comment on it because I've never read The Turn of the Screw. I have seen a film version from which I remember the gist of the story - enough to recognize the retelling - but that's not enough to comment on what Griffin chose to change, apart from the obvious time period and setting. And I'm assuming James' heroine wasn't popping pills.

On its own merits, it works as a suspenseful, often creepy story, the kind that's an easy sell to teens who've grew up on Mary Downing Hahn and want something edgier but not horror. Jamie isn't exactly a likeable heroine, but I did feel sympathy for her. It's obvious from the start that she's not quite reliable - she's frank about being hooked on pills and feeling depressed. The whole "is she really seeing ghosts and also crazy, or just crazy?" question plays out plausibly, with either option feeling believable.

The pacing is pretty good and it's a fairly quick read, which is refreshing in a world of bloated books. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to teens looking for a suspenseful ghost story.

One irritating detail - the housekeeper's lisp was about to drive me BONKERS.

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book had me hooked from the very begining. I liked the fact that she was a pill popper because it made her more real. The connection between her and the ghost was amazing too. So was Sebastian. However...this ending sucked. Really? She ends up being crazy and milo not real?? Milo not being real was actually really cool. But I wish he had been a ghost or something and I wish it would have been more of a ghost story. I think she should have found out the isa's dad had never even seen what ahe looked like so he had no idea she looked like jessie. I think peter should have made him pick her because he wanted her to stay there with him forever because jessie wasnt there. That would have been amazing.

[Michael Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

Genre: Supernatural, Mystery

Rating: ***
I enjoyed this mysterious tingle of a story. The struggle of Griffin’s Jamie in dealing with changes in her own belief system is wonderfully done.

Summary:
When teenage Jamie moves to a small town to work as an au pair, she becomes involved in a world of teenage drama and paranormal experience. Soon after arriving, she learns of the death of a young couple… and that is only the beginning to this tingling story.

Main Characters:
Jamie: teenager, moves to Little Bly to be an au pair for a wealthy family.

Key Issues:
Supernatural, Mental Health, Perspective.

Other Interesting Information:
This is a page-turner that has plenty of plot twists. The last 20 pages are a must-read!

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

It seems like it took me forever to read this book and honestly, for me, it was forgettable. I had a very hard time relating to the main character Jamie and had a hard time getting into the book in general. Again, this is just me, but the story started off so slow and didn't really pick up... ever! It was just strange when Jamie started becoming fascinated with the deaths of Jessie and Pater, on top of that, finding out that Connie was just entertaining the whole Milo thing was just flat out weird! I was led to believe this was a kind of "supernatural" thriller and it wasn't! I just didn't like it, not for me!!!

[Victoria · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was certainly a fast and entertaining read. But, overall, I felt rather unsatisfied with the ending. The resolution felt rushed, and that so much of the build-up went wasted. In addition, there weren't really enough "clues" leading up to the conclusion, and it felt a bit like that aspect should have been researched a bit more. Had I read Turn of the Screw along with this, maybe it would have felt more complete, but as a standalone novel, I never really connected with any of the characters. And Jamie's actions were overall rather shocking to me, not to mention off-putting.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a neat little modern reworking of Henry James' "The Turn of the Screw." Seventeen-year-old Jamie becomes an au pair on Little Bly Island after a troubled year at home. There, she meets her charge Isa, Isa's brother Milo, and Connie, the housekeeper. As an outsider, she struggles to fit in, especially because of the dark secret hanging over her appearance on the island. A fairly faithful retelling with interesting characters, and a quick read. I'll look for more Griffin to read. >^..^<

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to goodreads giveaways! I liked this book. It was a very easy read and it hooked me quickly. I think the topics involved would be appropriate for 8th grade and higher. A few big twists and turns and a pretty good creep factor!

[Tuyet Bui · Rating 1 out of 5]

I will not recommend this book because it was so boring and flat. It made me feel sleepy and I didn't want to read it. I was thinking about abandoning it but I didn't because I thought it was going to get better but apparently, it didn't and I hate the book.

[Leanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic! This has everything I love in a book!

Full review soon on my blog!

[Lupinus Texensis · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a two star book, with an accurate portrayal of mental illness. Now it's just a one star book.

[Beck · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 I was suspicious of Milo, but didn't guess what the actual cause would be.