Undercurrent

A blisteringly paced novel full of thrills, twists, and surprises, Undercurrent unfolds with possibilities that are both gripping and unsettling.

Sixteen-year-old Callum Harris never wanted to move to Crystal Falls. Neither did Cole, his brawny and fearless older brother. With the recent separation of their parents, the brothers have had quite enough change of late.

But the move turns out to be only the first of many changes in Callum's life. After he plunges headlong over the falls, he wakes up in the hospital to find that life is no longer what it once was: his squabbling parents appear to have reconciled; his brother, an unrepentant jock and serial dater, is paralyzed and bed-ridden in a makeshift hospital room at home; and even Callum himself, always studious and unpopular, is now the object of desire for the two hottest girls in school.

As he adjusts to this surreal new life--a life both exhilarating and terrifying--Callum struggles to reconcile his past memories with a dangerous and uncertain present. Who is he? Where is he? And what, exactly, has he become?

Writing as PAUL E. BLACKWELL, P.J. Bracegirdle is the author of the middle-grade series the Joy of Spooking (S&S/McElderry) and the recently published picture book The Dead Family Diaz (Penguin/Dial). He has previously worked at a variety of jobs, from keeping the stage door of a haunted old Scottish theatre to pushing laundry carts along dark tunnels under an insane asylum. He lives in Montreal.