The Precious Dreadful: A Novel

by Steven Parlato

Overview

Combining romance and humor with elements of the paranormal, this is a profound novel about one teenage girl’s decision to redefine her life in the wake of supernatural events.

Teddi Alder is just trying to figure out her life.

When she joins SUMMERTEENS, a library writing group, she’s only looking to keep herself busy, not go digging around in her subconscious. But as she writes, disturbing memories of her lost childhood friend Corey bubble to the surface, and Teddi begins to question everything: her friendship with her BFF Willa, how much her mom really knows, and even her own memories. Teddi fears she’s losing her grip on reality—as evidenced by that mysterious ghost-girl who emerges from the park pool one night, the one who won’t leave Teddi alone. To top it all off, she finds herself juggling two guys with potential, a quirky new boy named Joy and her handsome barista crush Aidan, who has some issues of his own.

As the summer unfolds, Teddi is determined to get to the bottom of everything—her feelings, the mysterious ghost-girl, and the memories of Corey that refuse to be ignored.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781507202777
Publisher:	Simon Pulse
Publication date:	02/13/2018
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)
Age Range:	14 Years

About the Author

Award-winning author and poet, Steven Parlato, has work in Freshwater, Peregrine, and other journals. Upon the release of his YA debut, The Namesake, by Merit Press in 2013, Publishers Weekly called Parlato “a name to watch.” A college English professor (with a giraffe-filled office), illustrator, and actor, Steven has played roles including the Scarecrow, Macbeth, and the Munchie Mania Guy in a Friendly’s training film. He lives in Connecticut with his wife, two teens, and a Binks-like cockapoo. Follow Steven online at StevenParlato.com and on Twitter @ParlatoWrites.

Editorial Reviews

Haunting in every sense of the word, The Precious Dreadful is a dark, poignant exploration of friendship, loss, and the very real power of storytelling.

Stephanie Kuehn

Teddi Alder’s life is rough. Her father left when she was just a baby, her mother struggles with alcoholism and being a young parent, and something traumatic happened in Teddi’s life that she has been blocking from her memory for years. Her memories start flooding back when she joins a local writing group for teens and begins seeing visions of a young girl. Is the girl a ghost or something else? Teddi’s personal life gets more complicated when she is torn between her new love interest, Aidan, and mysterious Ed. She needs to find out what happened to her childhood friend, Corey, too, and the memories of his leaving are coming back to her. Did the whole community give up on finding Corey because he was “dark?” Teddi must confront her past and sort through her current issues in order to find peace in her present and future. While there is some strong language and sexual content, the disturbing part is when Aidan, who struggles with anger issues, hits Teddi. He apologizes and Teddi is upset with him, but they reconcile and stay together. That is not a good example for young readers. The book is well written and moves quickly as the reader tries to figure out with Teddi what happened to her friend Corey. Readers who enjoy mystery will be quick to grab up this book. Reviewer: Kate Neff; Ages 15 to 18.

VOYA, December 2017 (Vol. 40, No. 5) - Kate Neff

12/01/2017
Gr 9 Up—Sixteen-year-old Teddi Alder is beginning what promises to be a lazy summer when life decides to pile on the drama. At SummerTeens, a library-sponsored writing group, Teddi's fiction journaling drifts toward the autobiographical—uncovering in the process fragmented childhood memories that she can't quite piece together of a long-lost friend, Corey. Teddi is also navigating a tumultuous relationship with her long-time crush—turned—boyfriend, Aidan, whose mercurial moods tend toward frighteningly intense anger, while reluctantly developing feelings for fellow SummerTeen Ed. Oh, and she's seeing a ghost. The mystery Parlato promises readers as to just what dark memories Teddi has buried deep within her subconscious will propel teens through the first half of the novel. But this is a difficult task given how the author writes the main character—with a voice that rings more or less false throughout but is particularly egregious during the first third of the novel (no one, teenager or adult, uses phrases like, "my alarm's about to bleat"). Overall, however, the blend of supernatural and psychological horror is unsuccessful. There are a lot of mixed messages regarding the ghost, and readers will finish the novel without clarity on if it was meant to be merely a hallucination of Teddi's mind or an actual metaphysical manifestation. Self-harm, alcoholism, drug addiction, and abuse are featured within. VERDICT There are better mysteries of this type available. Not recommended.—Ann Santori, Cook Memorial Public Library, Libertyville, IL

School Library Journal

2017-11-13
A white teenage girl is haunted by disturbing, repressed memories of a childhood friend.Looking to stave off the boredom of summer vacation, Teddi Alder joins the local library's teen writing group. Her life becomes unexpectedly complicated by both a new romance with white, crushworthy Aidan and the mysterious appearance of a little girl whom only Teddi sees. Once she begins writing, memories of her long-lost childhood friend Corey seep into her consciousness and her writing. Although she had always thought that Corey's family moved away when they were young, she discovers, to her horror, that he went missing when he was 7 and that the search for him was soon called off because he was "a couple shades too dark to matter much." She spends her days and sleepless nights haunted by the twin mysteries of the ghost girl and Corey while juggling an increasingly dysfunctional relationship with Aidan. The writing process helps her to work through her repressed memories of the dark and violent events leading up to Corey's disappearance, prompting her to question how much her mother knew about what happened. The dialogue among Teddi and her friends isn't always convincing, and the suspenseful arc of this story is unbalanced by a love triangle that develops erratically and feels out of place in the context of the overall plot.An uneven mix of paranormal mystery and realistic fiction. (Paranormal mystery. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews