Sight by Vrettos

This is on the Best Books of 2007 for Young Adults. I guess I read this distracted and didn't catch the foreshadowing, impending doom stuff til about 2/3rd's of the way through the book. That's too long for me for a book to start building steam. Looking back their were clues, but all I was really aware of was a town's, a new girl's and Dylan's obsession with the death of a boy classmate when Dylan was in kindergarten. He was of course the first time she saw the death of a child. At that age it would have been very horrifying. A person would tend to obsess over it, especially since there were aspects the 5-year-old didn't understand but would eventually. New girl Cate, chirpy and determined to befriend Dylan and become her confident reminds Dylan of someone else, but she can't quite remember who. Dylan succumbs to Cate's overtures and confides in her that she sees the last minutes of the lives of murdered children and helps the local police solve the mysteries of their disappearances. This is something even her best friend Pilar doesn't know. But then Pilar has secrets from Dylan as we find out. There is reason to believe that a man known only as the drifter is back in the area. Evidence indicates that he is responsible for both the boy's death long ago and the most recent murder of a ten-year-old girl on the mountain. Everyone is terrified, especially Pilar whose little sister disappears at the climax of this story. Who Cate is turns out to be quite a surprise. There is a side story about this rural, close knit mountain village being developed against the wishes of many residents and about a group of boys from Dylan's class who have been vandalising work sites. And, another about Dylan's aunts who she doesn't know but who are definitely strange. I can't tell you much about Dylan, who she is, who she might become or her friends. Its the mystery thats important, I guess though there are a couple of things that aren't explained well. I like stories better when the characters are more complex jdw 2/1/08