For Toronto author Cheryl Rainfield, being shortlisted for a 2010 Governor General’s Literary Award was a bright, sunshiny moment. But she received a different kind of attention when her nominated novel, Scars, was singled out in a Wall Street Journal article criticizing current YA fiction for being “like a hall of fun-house mirrors, constantly reflecting back hideously distorted portrayals of what life is.” The book, about a teen girl who engages in “cutting,” or self-harm, to cope with repressed memories of sexual abuse, was included on the newspaper’s hit list in part for its cover art, which depicts a forearm covered in a web of gruesome scars, and in part for its dark subject matter. Rainfield’s new novel, Hunted (Fitzhenry & Whitside, $12.95 pa., Jan.), veers firmly into the realm of fantasy, her other genre of choice. Caitlyn is telepathic in a world where being a “Para” can get you killed. She has always hidden her abilities but longs to reveal her secret to her new friends. It’s only a matter of time before the wrong people find out, and Caitlyn must choose between saving herself and saving the world.
