about the book
Rich-kid, party-boy Lucas Knight finds himself spending the summer in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where his father, a real estate developer, is building a luxury hotel. The town locals spew tales of ghosts and a girl with poisonous green skin, grass for hair, and wish-granting abilities.
Lucas pays no mind to these stories. He’s only interested in partying with his friends Ruben, Rico, and Carlos—that is, until he starts receiving mysterious notes which lead him to the home of Dr. Ford, a creepy American botanist. His house is supposedly cursed and his daughter, Isabel, is the wish-granting “greenie.”
Lucas is surprised to find an attractive—and “normal”—girl in the home and is inexplicably lured into her strange and enchanted world. He notices that the more time he spends with her the sicker he gets, but he can’t stay away. He learns she is poisonous to him as the result of a curse.
When Marisol, Ruben’s cousin and Lucas’ former fling, disappears and washes up dead on the beach following a string of other female disappearances, the authorities—and Lucas’ friends—suspect Lucas. In a desperate fight to prove his innocence, Lucas and Isabel band together to find a way to stop the disappearances and break the curse.
about the author
When Samantha Mabry was a teenager, she loved grunge and punk music. She spent her afternoons after school in her room playing bass guitar to albums she loved and writing fan letters. Samantha was particularly passionate about early 1990s feminist “riot grrrl” bands like Babes in Toyland and L7.
Today, as a writing teacher and author living in Dallas, Texas, Samantha still remembers the passion and connection she felt with those bands. She hopes readers connect with her writing with the same kind of passion.
Samantha says her punk rock ways have softened a bit, as she loves to spend time camping in west Texas and figuring out how to start a campfire. When she’s not escaping out West, she enjoys riding her bike in downtown Dallas, practicing yoga, and playing chess.
She shares her Dallas home with her husband, a historian, and a cat named Mouse.
Sources:
Author website
Author biography: Algonquin Young Readers
Author interview: Kate Hart
Author interview: Bookiemoji
Author interview: Pitch América
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