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Everyone knows that high-school senior Hamilton Best throws the best and most exclusive parties. Suddenly someone is beating her to the punch by posting anonymous guest lists to her own party. This queen of popularity is certain it’s one of her clique and that she's plotting her downfall. Who could it be? Olivia, chosen back in kindergarten, but now tired of always being second in charge; Nordica, a meek underclassman rescued by Hamilton; Zelda, a freak who’s tolerated because of her association with Hamilton; or bitchy Shelly, the only one to become a member on her own accord? Alternating chapters reveal their true feelings for and conspiracies toward Hamilton. Readers may wonder why five such antagonistic girls would even remain friends, especially when Hamilton’s loner boyfriend, Alex, comes between them. (Hamilton thinks he’s grown distant, Zelda has a crush on him, Olivia refuses his stealthy advances and Shelly’s ready to steal him out from under Hamilton.) Even their dialogue sounds stilted at times (“From where does this sudden sense of altruism spring?”). But readers who stick around for the second part of this debut, narrated by Alex, will discover the girls’ shocking true identities, how Hamilton is indeed overthrown and Alex’s mysterious role in it all. An interesting ending makes the inconsistent path worth the ride. (Fiction. YA)

Pub Date: May 8, 2011

ISBN: 978-0-7387-2799-8

Page Count: 312

Publisher: Flux

Review Posted Online: April 3, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011

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CHAOS THEORY

A thoughtful, realistically messy emotional wallop that destigmatizes mental disorders.

Andy and Shelbi find love while navigating mental health challenges in suburban Georgia.

It all starts when 18-year-old Andy Criddle drunkenly texts the wrong number. The mistaken recipient ends up offering him emotional support and asks him not to drive drunk. Despite agreeing, he gets behind the wheel—and into an accident. After being charged with a DUI, Andy, the son of a congresswoman running for Senate, is barred from attending his graduation and shamed in the press. Meanwhile, 16-year-old AP physics student Shelbi Augustine, who finds car crashes interesting for scientific reasons, picks up Andy’s wallet at the scene of the wreck. She returns it to him in class and gives him a pep talk before nervously rushing away. The judge orders Andy to complete community service at a soup kitchen where Shelbi regularly volunteers, and when their paths cross again, she confesses that she was the person he was texting. As they grow closer, Shelbi, who has bipolar depression, has Andy sign a friendship agreement. Rule No. 6 reads, “Do not, under any circumstances, fall in love with Shelbi.” Naturally, this is a rule destined to be broken. The comfort and ease the two have are mirrored by Stone’s breezy writing. Her casual tone acts as a potent salve for the heart-wrenching scenes and the searing portrayal of healing. Most characters are Black; Andy’s dad is White, and Shelbi’s paternal grandmother is from India.

A thoughtful, realistically messy emotional wallop that destigmatizes mental disorders. (author’s note) (Romance. 14-18)

Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2023

ISBN: 978-0-593-30770-0

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: Nov. 28, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2022

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A STUDY IN DROWNING

From the Study in Drowning series , Vol. 1

A dark and gripping feminist tale.

A young woman faces her past to discover the truth about one of her nation’s heroes.

When Effy Sayre, the only female architecture student at her university in Llyr, wins the competition to design Hiraeth Manor for the estate of the late Emrys Myrddin, national literary figure and her favorite author, it is the perfect opportunity to leave behind a recent trauma. She arrives to find the cliffside estate is literally crumbling into the ocean, and she quickly realizes things may not be as they seem. Preston, an arrogant literature student, is also working at the estate, gathering materials for the university’s archives and questioning everything Effy knows about Myrddin. When Preston offers to include her name on his thesis—which may allow her to pursue the dream of studying literature that was frustrated by the university’s refusal to admit women literature students—Effy agrees to help him. He’s on a quest for answers about the source of Myrddin’s most famous work, Angharad, a romance about a cruel Fairy King who marries a mortal woman. Meanwhile, Myrddin’s son has secrets of his own. Preston and Effy start to suspect that Myrddin’s fairy tales may hold more truth than they realize. The Welsh-inspired setting is impressively atmospheric, and while some of the mythology ends up feeling extraneous, the worldbuilding is immersive and thoughtfully addresses misogyny and its effects on how history is written. Main characters are cued white.

A dark and gripping feminist tale. (Fantasy. 14-18)

Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023

ISBN: 9780063211506

Page Count: 384

Publisher: HarperTeen

Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023

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