The Ruining
This creepy psychological thriller starts innocently enough: Annie Phillips is ready to leave behind Detroit—and a painful secret—for a postcard-perfect life in San Francisco as a nanny for the wealthy Cohen family. At first Libby, the beautiful, young mother, sees Annie as a mentee of sorts, offering her fabulous clothes and use of her luxury car. But Libby moves quickly from “concerned and caring to cold and disapproving,” and Annie is at her psychotic mercy. Soon Annie is being blamed for things she didn’t do, failing out of San Francisco State, and breaking up with cute next-door neighbor Owen at Libby’s urging. Annie is a vulnerable, mentally fragile being, and as such, Libby is able to mess with her mind. Eventually Annie starts to lose her grip on reality while still craving Libby’s approval. Collomore’s novel builds at a pitch-perfect pace, and readers will feel appropriately uncomfortable as it all unfolds. While the final events of the book strain credulity somewhat, and many threads wrap up predictably (although one seems open to interpretation), this is pretty gripping, unputdownable stuff. Grades 7-12, --Ann Kelley