- Sekret by Lindsay Smith
Yulia is a seventeen-year-old daughter of former high-ranking Communist Party members in the early 1960s, just trying to keep her mother and brother safe and fed. She is also increasingly aware of her burgeoning psychic power—as is the KGB, which kidnaps her and forces her to work on secret projects. Yulia’s parents turn out to be much more involved than she ever knew with this underground psychic program, and the implications of this revelation are as startling to Yulia as her own powers. For now, she’s just obsessed with escape, but it is clear that there is much for Yulia to unpack in terms of familial and governmental secrets in the future. Yulia and the other teens at the training facility where she is taken are effectively developed; they are all individuals clearly marked by the era and restrictive environment in which they were raised while also being shaped by their varying supernatural abilities. This is an intriguing novel set in an unusual (and intricately described) setting, and historical fiction fans are as likely to enjoy this as those selecting it for the ESP content. [End Page 477]