Tags
Autism, Fiction, Justine Champine, LGBTQ+, mystery, Needle Lake
Publication Date: December 2, 2025
Another similarity—I loved this novel too. Being a bit on the spectrum myself, I could often identify with the main character, Ida. And, of course, there was a lot to find in common with her older cousin, Elna, because no matter how ‘good’ or ‘bad’ you were, the teen years are a very trying time for females and Elna, despite how glamorous she might seem to Ida, did not have the best of childhoods.
Well, there is another similarity—the relationship between Elna’s mother and her older sister, Ida’s mother. Lots of excellent layers in this book. And in Champine’s hands, the story is very real, sometimes painfully so.
As Ida says in the beginning of the book: And once, after Elna came to stay, I watched a man drown there [Needle Lake] on Christmas Eve, his body trapped beneath the ice.
The hows and whys will be revealed by the end of the book. But will it all turn out right in the end? As Mrs. Potts says in Beauty and the Beast: You’ll see . . .
Justine Champine
GoodReads says:
Two cousins on very different sides of teen girlhood spend a winter together that changes both of their lives forever.
“A searing, unforgettable novel that captures the intense and dangerous alchemy of girlhood.”—Chelsea Bieker, author of Madwoman
And once, after Elna came to stay, I watched a man drown there on Christmas Eve, his body trapped beneath the ice.
Fourteen-year-old Ida was born with a hole in her heart. Forbidden from most physical activities and considered strange by her teachers and peers, she prefers spending time alone, memorizing countries and capitals on her globe and imagining the world outside the tiny logging town of Mineral, Washington.
One afternoon, in walks her cousin Elna, there to stay for a few weeks. Ida hasn’t seen Elna since they were children, and she’s immediately drawn to her older cousin, who’s everything Ida is confident, glamorous, charismatic, and daring. Elna lives in San Francisco, a city Ida has seen only as a dot on her globe. She doesn’t treat Ida like she’s a fragile kid whose heart might give out at any moment. She isn’t scared off by Ida’s quirks and fixations. Ida is enraptured.
Then, on Christmas Eve, a man dies out in the woods near Mineral, and the two cousins suddenly share a secret beyond the scope of anything Ida has dealt with before. Fear begins to mix with the reverence Ida feels toward her cousin, especially when she discovers Elna is hiding more than she ever suspected. Brimming with lush prose and careful observation, Needle Lake is an arresting portrait of girlhood and the overwhelming, sometimes dangerous intensity of adolescence.
The Wilderness Road 
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