Paper Valentine

By: Brenna Yovanoff

Narrated by: Caitlin Prennace

Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

The city of Ludlow is gripped by the hottest July on record. The asphalt is melting, the birds are dying, petty crime is on the rise, and someone in Hannah Wagnor’s peaceful suburban community is killing girls.

For Hannah, the summer is a complicated one. Her best friend Lillian died six months ago, and Hannah just wants her life to go back to normal. But how can things be normal when Lillian’s ghost is haunting her bedroom, pushing her to investigate the mysterious string of murders? Hannah’s just trying to understand why her friend self-destructed, and where she fits now that Lillian isn’t there to save her a place among the social elite. And she must stop thinking about Finny Boone, the big, enigmatic delinquent whose main hobbies seem to include petty larceny and surprising acts of kindness.

With the entire city in a panic, Hannah soon finds herself drawn into a world of ghost girls and horrifying secrets. She realizes that only by confronting the Valentine Killer will she be able move on with her life and it’s up to her to put together the pieces before he strikes again.

©2013 Brenna Yovanoff (P)2013 Listening Library

Critic reviews

An NPR Best Book of 2013

A Boston Globe Best Book for Young Adults of 2013

A YALSA Best Book for Young Readers of 2014

A 2014 YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Readers

A 2014 Booklist Pick for Best Fiction for Young Readers

awesome book

I read this book I'm high school when I should have been listening to my economics class.... let me tell you it's just as good as I remember

Very good and entertaining!

Where does Paper Valentine rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I like the performance of this book! The actress is really good at making characters distinct, and the baseline narration was also really lovely. Typically I don't find books written in present tense to be enjoyable but I think the voice acting made it really nice.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Paper Valentine?

The reveal! It surprised me, and I had decided early on what I thought had happened!

Which character – as performed by Caitlin Prennace – was your favorite?

Finney! So good, such good acting!!

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It was honestly a lot spookier than I expected, but that was really good. And it made me sentimental, as this is a book I would have absolutely lost my mind fawning over in middle and high school.

Any additional comments?

I really like this book! I think as a YA story it is really cool. As someone with an eating disorder it was interesting to see the story of the friend of someone who suffered with ED. I think the story is pretty true to what I and a lot of other people experience. That being said if hearing someone say sort of ignorant, sometimes meanspirited (out of misunderstanding) things about anorexia, then this book might not be easy to get through, as it features very prominently.