By Gigi Griffis
Holiday House, 2025
361 pages
978-0-8234-5912-4
Age 14 and older
In 1980s Estonia, Soviet forces still occupy the country, but Estonians are feeling more freedom to speak out in protest. This political landscape frames the uncanny story of Vik, whose younger sister, Anna, disappeared five years ago, when the two of them sneaked into the bog despite having been warned of its danger. Vik’s life is a shadow of what it once was … and then Anna reappears. Vik is stunned and joyous—until she realizes that Anna is still five years old. She’s dirty and mostly silent, but when she does speak, her words are Russian, not Estonian. Could it be the magic of Soovana, a folklore trickster who draws humans into the bog with his glowing, lanternlike eyes? When word gets out about Anna’s return, the villagers suspect witchcraft and turn on Vik’s family, even when Anna falls deathly ill. Desperate to uncover the mystery behind this Anna-who-is-not-Anna, Vik and her friend, Liis (who has a limb difference), venture into the bog, calling on Vik’s oracle cards for guidance. Stumbling upon the Asylum, the girls discover the horrible truth—along with secret after secret about themselves and their own families—of what is taking place there: experimental cloning, with the eventual goal of bolstering the Soviet army. But getting the Asylum’s residents—and themselves—out may be an impossible feat. An Author’s Note identifies Vik’s mental illnesses as OCD and C-PTSD, which go unnamed in this intense, unsettling horror novel. ©2025 Cooperative Children’s Book Center