Conjured by Sarah Beth Durst (review)

With no memory of her life before waking up in a hospital room, Eve is certain only of two things: that she has magical powers others do not and that her handlers, despite being federal agents, aren't telling her the whole truth about her situation. They've informed her that she is in witness protection, hiding from a serial killer in the safe house to which they've relocated her, but Eve gets the uneasy sense that her protectors would just as soon use her as bait to lure the murderer out, particularly if she remains unable to provide any useful information. She's additionally troubled by her visions of a man called the Magician, visions that precede bouts of short term memory loss, and by the two boys she meets while in hiding, who have secrets of their own. The third-person narration is tightly focalized through Eve, and readers will soon realize that she is quite possibly as unreliable in her perspective as the myriad of deceivers that surround her. Durst goes for the slow burn here, keeping the killer and his crimes largely offstage except for a few bare flashes, thereby making his threat loom even larger. The supernatural element seems initially superfluous, but as Eve's identity is revealed, her powers and her past play into a larger philosophical debate among the characters regarding the nature of reality and the ways in which our fate is too often determined by unknowable forces. Eerie and provocative, this is a thinker of a thriller that will appeal to teens whose past has left them feeling adrift.