> Skip to content
Play sample
  • Published: 4 October 2022
  • ISBN: 9780593618394
  • Imprint: Dutton
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $24.99

A Line in the Dark

  • Malinda Lo




Poised to be discovered by a fresh generation of readers, Malinda Lo’s twisty queer thriller, A Line in the Dark returns to the shelf with a striking new look.

“A twisty, dark psychological thriller that will leave you guessing til the very end."—Teen Vogue

“[A] riveting read…"—NPR

The line between best friend and something more is a line always crossed in the dark.
 
Jess Wong is Angie Redmond’s best friend. And that’s the most important thing, even if Angie can’t see how Jess truly feels. Being the girl no one quite notices is OK with Jess anyway. If nobody notices her, she’s free to watch everyone else. But when Angie begins to fall for Margot Adams, a girl from the nearby boarding school, Jess can see it coming a mile away. Suddenly her powers of observation are more a curse than a gift.
 
As Angie drags Jess further into Margot’s circle, Jess discovers more than her friend’s growing crush. Secrets and cruelty lie just beneath the carefree surface of this world of wealth and privilege, and when they come out, Jess knows Angie won’t be able to handle the consequences.
 
When the inevitable darkness finally descends, Angie will need her best friend.
                               
“It doesn’t even matter that she probably doesn’t understand how much she means to me. It’s purer this way. She can take whatever she wants from me, whenever she wants it, because I’m her best friend.”
 
A Line in the Dark is a story of love, loyalty, and murder.


★ "Mesmerizing."—Kirkus, starred review.

  • Published: 4 October 2022
  • ISBN: 9780593618394
  • Imprint: Dutton
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $24.99

Praise for A Line in the Dark

“With an active focus on female friendships and relationships, A Line in the Dark is a twisty, dark psychological thriller that will leave you guessing until the very end.  Lo offers some impressive storytelling, a chilling plot, and mean girls aplenty.”—Teen Vogue

“A riveting read… The story of tensions, romances and even violence between townies and prep school kids is well-trodden ground, but Lo makes it new and exciting by creating nuanced queer characters and giving them the chance to make their own terrible decisions.”—NPR
 
"Soaked in menace. Each page in this brilliant thriller is deliciously unsettling—like Gone Girl meets Pretty Little Liars."New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White

"A heart-tugging story of a teenage girl who expresses herself in art in ways she can’t quite do in real life—even as she tries to hold on to her best friend despite grappling with deeper feelings for her.”—Vulture

"A hauntingly captivating thriller."—Bustle

"This slender novel packs a punch."—Brightly

“This isn’t fluffy, romantic queer YA: the main character Jess Wong is a kind of sidekick anti-heroine at the center of an increasingly complex web of secrets, lies and, eventually, murder.”—Autostraddle

“A beautifully written and compellingly well-observed psychological thriller.” —New York Times bestselling author Kate Elliott 

* "An enthralling mystery full of twists, turns, dark heroics... and high school."—Shelf Awareness, starred review 

* "An intricate tapestry of narrative, woven in a labyrinthine pattern of secrets and colored with intersecting hues of Chinese-American identity, the dark intensity of relationships, and telltale stains of blood.... Mesmerizing."—Kirkus, starred review 

* "Any young adult reader who loves psychological thrillers will be clamoring to get their hands on this captivating book."—SLC, starred review
 
"Dark, twisty, and unsettling, this book almost begs to be read in one sitting, and then instantly reread.... "—SLJ

"Drawing every character as complicit in unexpected and thought-provoking ways, Lo spins an addictive psychological mystery."—The Horn Book

 

penguin pop image
penguin pop image