A Mark in the Road

by Angelique Burrell, Haley Hwang (Editor)

Overview

Every tire track tells a story. At least that's what accident experts say. And there's no better expert than eighteen-year-old Mason.



Mason dreads the skid marks left by braking tires. Every mark - every near miss, dead animal, injured person - plays like a soundless documentary in his mind. When Mason's on-again-off-again crush Addie begs him to drive cross-country to help her move, he must face what he thought was his greatest fear - the open road. But a tire mark left near a missing woman's car on the Loneliest Road in America changes everything.

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As Mason searches for clues, he and Addie drive closer to trouble and risk losing everything.

Can his strange gift finally serve a purpose?

Can he race against the clock and drive 2,000 miles before the skid mark disappears?

This clean YA speculative thriller will take readers on a journey of acceptance, courage, and strength in the face of the unknown. For fans of Megan Miranda and Jennifer Lynn Barnes, this action-packed debut, with a promise of hope fringed on a highway of despair, will leave readers breathless and eagerly awaiting the next ride.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781957656199
Publisher:	Monarch Educational Services, L.L.C.
Publication date:	10/03/2023
Pages:	286
Sales rank:	1,007,465
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.64(d)
Age Range:	13 - 18 Years

About the Author

With an English teacher as a father and a librarian as a mother, it's no surprise that Angelique grew up loving to read. Now, she teaches high school English and creative writing in a suburb of Chicago, working to bring her love of reading and writing to high school students. She is blessed to have a supportive husband, daughter, and son, who don't mind her binge writing, an extended family who always encourage her creativity, and a dog who keeps her company late into the night. Angelique and her husband Walt love their home in Illinois, but their hearts are forever hiking in Lake Tahoe, California.

Editorial Reviews

2023-11-02
A teenager gifted with clairvoyant visions tries to rescue a missing woman while on a road trip with his lifelong crush.

Mason, a recent high school graduate living in Naperville, Illinois, has experienced strange visions since he was a child, visions triggered by vehicles’ skid marks on roads. His power is so peculiarly specific that it borders on the inadvertently comical: “For every tire track he drove over, he felt each moment as he saw it. He saw the screams, the wide eyes, the white knuckles. He felt the fear, the confusion, the shock. Those moments were real, a part of someone’s life, someone’s history, and they became part of his.” The power fills Mason with unease, so he keeps it to himself; his best friend from childhood, Addie, thinks he just has a creative ability to concoct richly detailed stories spontaneously. Mason loves Addie, though he’s unsure if the feeling is mutual, and he takes a road trip with her to her new home in Nevada. He’s not only anxious about her departure, but also about an article he recently read about a missing woman, Kenna Cook, who vanished one night after her car broke down. Mason learns that skid marks were found at the scene and feels a responsibility to help find her, though he worries about what Addie will think. In this YA novel, Burrell thoughtfully renders Mason’s double sense of alienation: Not only is he grappling with adolescence, but he has a weird, uncontrollable supernatural ability. His relationship with Addie is also tenderly and realistically portrayed. The novel tends toward the earnest and sentimental, and the author’s writing style can be bland. This is an intelligent depiction of teenage life, however, made ever more dramatic with a crime story and an element of the supernatural.

An affecting teen drama with an affable hero.

Kirkus Reviews