Sundown Girls
by L. S. Stratton
Nancy Paulsen Books, 2026. 293 pages.
Review written October 19, 2026, from a library book.
Less than a year ago, Naomi Ward had lived alone with her mother. Sure, they moved around a lot, but she was surprised one day when her mother was arrested for kidnapping her when she was a baby – and she had to go live with her “real” family, with a sister and brother and a new name.
Now it’s summer, and the family is vacationing in southwestern Virginia, just outside a town that was once a sundown town – where Black people weren’t allowed to be in the borders after the sun went down, or they’d be met with violence.
Naomi smells an awful stench in the air when she gets near the town, which no one else seems to notice. And then she starts seeing a ghost girl outside her window in the woods trying to tell Naomi something. But that pales in comparison with the casual racism her family encounters, including a truck that seems to want to run them off the road. And there are missing posters for a girl that no one seems to care about. And then Naomi finds the car of some neighbors gone down the side of the mountain, with their daughter missing.
The very first chapter foreshadows Naomi trapped in a basement with two other girls, so we know all these sinister forces – distressed ghosts, missing girls, and racism – are working toward a thrilling conclusion. And along all of it, Naomi is trying to deal with her parents who love her but don’t know what to make of her and think she’s overreacting to the sinister omens.
And I learned more than I wanted to know about Sundown Towns along the way.
Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/sundown_girls.html
Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.
Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.
Subscribe for more reviews and talk about books.
Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?