Black by Fleur Ferris, paperback novel, 276 pages, published by Random House Australia in 2016.

Ebony ‘Black’ Marshall has been devastated by the loss of three of her closest friends, on three separate occasions. Most of the town thinks she is cursed, and friends of Black are destined to die. Black has built a protective wall around herself, enduring the bullying and the fear. Then Aiden pops into her life, her parents start acting a little weird, and a connection is made between her and an old abandoned house. Now she must get to the bottom of the mystery, and she might even find love along the way.

This intriguing young adult novel kept me up reading. I completed it in one day as it was so difficult to put down. It is dark and thrilling, and oh so good. It was the mystery that pulled me in; why was Black so ostracised? Why was Father Ratchet so creepy? What was Ged’s problem? So many questions that I needed answers to! The pace was very fast and the story unravelled beautifully, making it a delightfully quick, spine-tingling read.

Black was an extremely interesting character. She is seventeen and finishing high school in a small town and she works at the water plant that her dad established. I felt very sad about the way many of the other kids, and some of the adults, in the town treated her. No one should be bullied and harassed like that, no wonder she was counting down the days until she could leave. Despite the treatment she had received, she was strong, competent, and capable, as well as nice.

I really liked Ed. He was gallant and supportive, definitely Black’s knight in shining armour! He was also quite funny, and I liked the way he was with Black. Aiden was also a nice character and a good friend. The not so nice characters were also written very well written; the mention of Father Ratchet was enough to make my skin crawl. He was seriously creepy.

Black is suitable for middle to upper high school students. Fleur Ferris has another book available called Risk, which I now want to read too!