ITW Thriller Award Finalist A dazzling and evocative novel about love and loss—with a dash of thrilling mystery—for fans of Mindy McGinnis and Courtney Summers. Owl has always been her freest self in the mountains, tracking, hiking, and exploring the steep forested acres of her aunt and uncle’s maple sugar farm. They never speak of the childhood tragedy that left her partially deaf and sent her father to jail. All Owl wants is to stay safe at the farm, her favorite place in the world, her refuge from those who would treat her differently. Owl’s sheltered existence is blown wide open by Cody—the magnetic, dangerous young man hired to help with the season’s sugaring off. Cody seems to see the real her, to look past her hearing loss in a way no one else does. Together, they find comfort in their similarities and exhilaration in their differences, and risk a romance their families are desperate to stop. ​But then Owl hears her father will be released from prison, and a seemingly motiveless murder shakes the foundations of her small town. When the crime draws all eyes to Cody, Owl realized he is in far more serious trouble than anyone knows—and it’s followed him to her mountain. Gr 9 Up-Growing up in an isolated, small town is difficult at best, but for 17-year-old Owl, partially deaf as the result of her father's abuse, it is the haven she needed to find safety and love. Adopted by her uncle Seth and his wife, Holly, Owl has healed with stories from Holly's Passamaquoddy culture and Seth's steady hand as they go about the business of farming maple syrup. Seth hires the grandson of their neighbor; Cody is the product of serial foster homes and is resistant to kindness, but Owl is charmed by his city ways and his pleasure in discovering the wilderness. As they work together, he slowly opens up to Owl and they begin a friendship that turns to more. Owl often feels at odds, not quite at home in either the deaf or hearing world. With the help of her deaf instructor, she begins to accept herself. When Cody's past comes to claim him, Owl intervenes to help, placing herself and her loved ones in danger. Paced with the smoothness of flowing maple sugar, this book is to be savored. Each word has been chosen to describe the seasons both outside, and within each character. Themes of both sexuality and violence are included, but are relevant to the story. Holly begins to face her own disconnect of living between two worlds-her white home and the Passamaquoddy family she left long ago-and sets the stage to help Owl take her own first steps toward healing with her father. VERDICT Recommended. Give to students who ponder, who like their action-adventure to be served with a careful build-up and on-the-edge-of-your-seat wilderness action.-Connie Williamsα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. ITW Thriller Award Finalist "As in French’s other books, she treats her working-class characters with compassion but not preciousness, with a third-person narration that shows the complications of small-town life without exploiting it for drama.”― The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books "Paced with the smoothness of flowing maple sugar, this book is to be savored."― SLJ "As ever, French weaves her storylines deftly…By the time a thriller plot kicks in, readers will be thoroughly embedded."― Kirkus Reviews "At turns lyrical and stark, Sugaring Off is a foray into the wilderness of New Hampshire’s mountains, a sensitive portrait of coming of age in rural America, and a spine-tingling thriller. Gillian French, like Delia Owens and Kristin Hannah, weaves her characters and the natural world they inhabit together masterfully."― Cameron Kelly Rosenblum, author of The Stepping Off Place, a Kirkus Best Book of 2020 "A work of great beauty. Part mystery, part a story of love and loss, it’s all heart."― Betty Culley, award-winning author of Three Things I Know Are True Gillian French  is the author of five novels for teens:  Grit ,  The Door to January ,  The Lies They Tell ,  The Missing Season , and  Sugaring Off . Her books have been finalists for an Edgar Award, a Bram Stoker Award, and an International Thriller Award, and have won a Lupine Award and two Maine Literary Awards. She lives with her husband and sons in Maine, where she's perpetually at work on her next novel. Visit her online at gillianfrench.com.