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Final book in a trilogy so some spoilers expected...

Christina Romney was able to help her friends Anya Rothrock and Dolly Jayne from being victims of the despicable Shevvingtons.

An accident on the ski slopes that could have been meant for either one of them and been fatal was Christina's misfortune to experience. Anya's sweetheart and Christina's crush, Blake Lathem, was at the same resort to meet with Anya, her mind slowly coming back, and he ended up whisking her away to live with a kind aunt.

Dolly went missing in the snow but Christina found her down in the cellar where the mysterious and maddening giggles haunted her. They weren't figments of her imagination or a voice of insanity in her own head but those belonging to another.

The mentally troubled son of Arnold and Candy Shevvington. Hidden by his parents after taking him out of a psychiatric hospital to help do their dirty work when it was impossible for either one to do so. To rattle the girls and make them go crazy and then leave Dolly in the cellar to have the tide drag her out from his escape route and not be found until the snows melted.

Christina saved her friend and a humbled Dolly decided to return home to the island for schooling and the Shevvingtons' son was taken back to the institution indefinitely. Some of the blame for the crazy incidents was now shifted from Christina to the son but still...no one thinks the Shevvingtons can do no wrong.

Poor parents just trying to take care of their child but finding him a lost cause as he did terrible things to hurt innocent young children is all it was. Christina is lauded a hero for saving Dolly but so much damage has been done through slander to still leave her as the troubled island girl where everyone still gives her pity.

Now it is getting closer to the end of the school year and it will be summer vacation where Christina can return home to Burning Fog Isle and her parents and the place she loves. Christina will soon be fourteen and another bit of news to brighten the situation comes from her hearing the Shevvingtons talking to each other early in the morning.

They are planning on selling the Schooner Inne and leaving for Chicago, where Mr. Shevvington has found a new principal position. They have not been in Maine that long and they are leaving?

Strange but to Christina that is the most wonderful news of all...an early birthday present!

Still, there are eighteen days left to try and break Christina down or perhaps burn her down?

Candles in coffee cans in her room and matchbooks stuffed in the pockets of her clothes and the sanctity of her purse, spilling out for others to see. An earlier incident with a pile of burning clothes makes it seem as if Christina's "way out" might be by fire just as Anya almost slipped away into the fog and Dolly almost became buried underneath the snow.

Christina isn't completely alone even though the other girls escaped.

Jonah Bergeron is still smitten with Christina even if they fight over her "strange" isle ways and Robbie Armstrong knows the Shevvingtons did the same thing to his sister Valerie last year before it became Anya's turn. He visits her in a mental institute where his parents put her at the Shevvingtons' "advice" and sees nothing there of the older sister he loves.

A few of the mainland girls who are not "in" have given Christina a chance but the popular ones still loose their venom, especially under Mrs. Shevvington as their teacher. Dolly's brothers Michael and Benjamin are grateful that Christina saved their sister but Michael is a popular athlete his first year in the high school of the junior high.

He no longer holds any interest for Christina with his selfishness.

Benjamin, the oldest brother who is counting the days until he turns sixteen and can drop out, is beginning to actually school being in the school band. For the first time he is opening up and the only person to care is Christina. He might not believe Christina is telling the truth about the Shevvingtons being evil but as the days at school get closer to being over, old Benj can see that Christina is different...in many ways.

She's held on for this long and when it seems Christina has a new ally and proof to finally bring the Shevvingtons' cruel history to light...her own light is starting to grow dimmer.

Can a spark of friendship, of love, after a year of being caught up in the darkness of the Shevvingtons' web be enough to rekindle her spirit?

Or will Christina be lost forever?

It has to be hard for a thirteen year old girl when she has to go up against such reprehensible adults who only seem to love destroying others. Having been thirteen myself, it is already bad enough dealing with jerky boys and budding mean girls but to not even have one adult on your side...must be the epitome of emptiness.

Not even parents or teachers to stand up for you...maybe even have some of those teachers laugh at your expense as if they enjoy it?

Getting to the climax is, pun partially intended, a slow burn but it is worth it for each nail-biting, heart-pounding moment to bring about a deserving ending.

It seems as if everything will turn happy and positive but there is also a lot of healing and maybe even some inner damage that might not be reversed. Characters will have to look closer at themselves and deal with major guilt and for the younger ones, it might be easy.

For adults, it could be another matter. As an adult now, I can certainly understand how difficult it is to think you may be right and have trouble admitting you're wrong.

If you have yet to read the Losing Christina trilogy or haven't revisited it in awhile, it is a great example of how good Caroline B. Cooney is as a writer. It is certainly something worth reading for the first time or again for a slightly different perspective.