WHERE: Mid­dle Woods, Bri­ar, Ohio
VIC­TIM: Rachel Simon
HERO: D.J. Rosen­blum
VIL­LAINS: ???

It’s the begin­ning of the school year — and Briar’s newest res­i­dent, D.J. Rosen­blum, is not here for it. Ever since her cousin Rachel died, D.J.’s fam­i­ly has been a mess: Her aunt and uncle are cata­ton­ic. Her mom is even more scat­ter­brained than usu­al. She had to post­pone her bat mitz­vah a whole year. Worst of all, she and her mom had to move — leav­ing her best friend, Eva, behind.

Bri­ar does have one redeem­ing fac­tor, though: Here, in Rachel’s home­town, D.J. can final­ly get to the bot­tom of her cousin’s death. With the help of a chat­ty jour­nal­ist and a queen-bee hack­er, D.J. can fill in the last days of Rachel’s life. And if she can just fig­ure out her Torah por­tion — with help from her cute tutor, Jon­ah — maybe, just maybe, she’ll be able to solve a big­ger mys­tery.

For fans of Look­ing for Alas­ka and Nev­er Have I Ever comes Abby White’s debut nov­el, D.J. Rosen­blum Becomes the G.O.A.T. It’s a bas­ket of mat­zo ball soup dumplings for any­one learn­ing to chart their own path, nav­i­gate new friend­ships and crush­es, and fig­ure out how to love — and live — after loss.