Blackfin Sky by Kat Ellis (review)

When sixteen-year-old Skylar Rousseau shows up late to school one day, she realizes she hasn’t just missed the first bell, she’s apparently missed the entire last three months of her life. Even for Blackfin, a town with its own resident weathervane ghost, the situation is weird: her classmates, neighbors, and family are certain they buried her after she drowned on her sixteenth birthday, while Sky herself has memories of the last few months that seem to match no one else’s. Plagued by visions of a burnt-down circus and suspicions that her parents know more than they’re telling, Sky embarks on an investigation that eventually leads to her discovering that she’s a Pathfinder—someone with the ability to move through alternate versions of her life—and that her powers have caught the attention of one very sadistic and power-hungry circus master. An intriguing premise is unfortunately undermined by plot contrivances and scarcity of atmosphere; characters keep repeating how strange Blackfin as a town is, but few examples are actually provided, and bits of history—a murder at Sky’s house, the backstory of an old Gypsy woman—are hastily and often awkwardly dropped in. Still, the central storyline—Sky’s attempts to learn about her powers and her efforts to defeat an undeniably frightening and disturbed villain—may draw readers along, and the dialogue-driven text might particularly appeal to readers of fast-paced, plot-driven thrillers.