THE GIRL IN THE HEADLINES

A high schooler is hunted for a crime she can’t remember.

Athletic, asthmatic Andrea McNulty had a happy life with her adoptive parents and little brother, Josh. But when she awakes in a strange motel room after her 18th birthday, bruised and bloody, she finds her family’s peace shattered, her parents possibly dead, and her brother missing. Unable to remember what transpired the previous night, Andi finds a street-wise ally in oddly helpful motel employee Nate (described as mixed-race; which races are not specified). Floundering through her sudden ejection from the sheltered, middle-class life of her White family, Andi soon uncovers suburbia’s seedier side—and dark family secrets. No accomplished amateur sleuth, Andi’s attempts to exonerate herself and find the perpetrators just feed the media frenzy. As the news outlets and her former friends sensationalize Andi’s rough childhood—a birth mother addicted to heroin, issues in the adoption process following her time in foster care—Andi begins to question everything and everyone. Jayne gestures at but doesn’t fully explore poverty or racism: Certain characters come off as caricatures, with their tacky nails, cigarettes, and prison sentences, more driven by greed than downtrodden by the system. Overall, this is a propulsive—if occasionally illogical and unlikely—story rife with true-crime TV tropes and plenty of red herrings.

A teen thriller that questions middle-class myths.