Summary

Chapter 1, subtitled, “Ellery: Friday August 30,” is told from the first-person perspective of Ellery, who has just arrived in Vermont, her mother’s home state, with her twin brother, Ezra, from La Puente, California. Her mother, Sadie, has been placed in court-ordered rehab, and Ellery and her brother are moving in with their grandmother for the duration of senior year. Ellery’s bags do not arrive at the terminal, so she fills out a form and then they go outside and look for their grandmother, who arrives with her neighbor, Melanie Kilduff, who used to babysit Sadie. They drive toward Echo Ridge, the small town where they live. Melanie’s daughter, Lacey, was murdered in Echo Ridge’s Halloween themed amusement park, Murderland, before Ellery was born. Ellery, whose aunt Sarah, Sadie’s twin, disappeared in Echo Ridge when they were seniors in high...