Eleven-year-old Riley believes in the Whispers, magical wish-granting fairies from his mother’s stories, which she was able to reconcile with her Christian faith. But his mother has been missing for several months, and his father, older brother, and grandparents aren’t talking about why. The stress is causing Riley to wet the bed, but he’s also stressed about his crush on an eighth grader, Dylan, about bullies at school, and about his mother’s reaction to his same-sex attraction, which she discovered shortly before she disappeared.
Riley (who is White) regularly goes camping with his best friend Gary, a mixed-race boy who also knows what it is like not to fit in in their small Southern town. When the detective assigned to solving Riley’s mother’s disappearance seems stuck, Riley decides he and Gary should head into the woods to seek answers from the Whispers.
Author Greg Howard paints a believable and at times haunting picture of rural Southern life and of a boy struggling to make sense of what feels like a betrayal by his mother, even as he is trying to make sense of his own identity. The book explores deep emotions, not all happy, but Howard is skillful enough to add touches of humor throughout and to leave us with a sense of hope about Riley and his future.
