Josie and Jack — Kelly Braffet

THRILLINGLY DANGEROUS, WORRYINGLY LIKEABLE: SOME SIBLINGS ARE BETTER KEPT APART • NOW A FILM, DIRECTED BY SARAH LANCASTER

Beautiful, brilliant, and inseparable, Josie and Jack Raeburn live a secluded, anarchic existence in their decaying western Pennsylvania home. The only adult in their lives is their rage-prone father, a physicist, whose erratic behavior finally drives them away. Without a moral compass to guide them, Jack leads Josie into a menacing world of wealth, eroticism, and betrayal. His sociopathic tendencies emerge, and soon Josie must decide which is stronger: the love and devotion she feels for her brother or her will to survive.

From its opening page to its shocking climax, this contemporary Hansel and Gretel story is compulsively readable and hugely entertaining.