The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls by Claire LeGrand

Victoria and Lawrence are best friends. She is a goody-two-shoes who maintains perfect grades and a perfect appearance, he is a semi-slovenly musical prodigy with prematurely (he's 12) greying hair. Their lives progress without incident -- Victoria constantly nags Lawrence to tuck in his shirt and stop humming all the time, and he genially ignores her admonitions -- until one day Lawrence goes missing. Concern for her friend leads Victoria to begin asking questions about where he might have gone and why.

To make matters worse, everyone in the town is acting odd and, after some investigation, Victoria is lead back to a place called The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls. Mrs. Cavendish has run the home for as long anyone can remember and while she seems friendly enough, Victoria is sure that something darker is afoot. When she is taken to live in the home, Victoria is confronted with horrors and challenges she couldn't have dreamed of. Will she save Lawrence before it's too late? Will the two of them escape from Mrs. Cavendish? And, most importantly, will they find out what has been happening to their town and what part The Home and Mrs. Cavendish have played?

This whole book feels like an old episode of the Twilight Zone, or an Edgar Allen Poe short story. Creepiness is well woven into the book, and the ending (which I will not ruin for you here) definitely could have been from a Twilight Zone episode. Nothing turns out quite like you think it will, and every time a character or plot point feels resolved, new complications arise. Check it out today!