Riveting.
In this sequel to Lies I Told (2014), Grace tries to atone for the major theft she helped her adoptive parents commit.
Grace and her big brother, Parker, were adopted out of the foster-care system by a con-artist couple who taught them the art of grifting. As an outwardly normal-looking family, they planned and pulled off cons on wealthy neighbors. Last year, however, they stole a hoard of gold from the family of Logan, Grace’s boyfriend. Parker was captured, and Grace now ditches her adoptive dad, Cormac, to return to the scene of the crime and try somehow to get Parker out of prison. She meets a former grifter who has a beef with Cormac, and they team up to try to catch him so that Grace will have ammunition for a plea deal with the prosecutor. However, finding Cormac may prove to be difficult. Zink keeps pages turning as Grace tries to stay undercover even as she contacts a detective she thinks she can trust. With every choice she makes she seems poised on the edge of a cliff, and readers will feel that vertigo all the way through. Grace’s struggle with her guilt and her desire to stay free so she can help Parker lends even further tension to the story.
Riveting. (Thriller. 12-18)Pub Date: Nov. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-232715-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Aug. 4, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
A fresh take on high school and activism.
An upset in the struggle for succession at a high school newspaper sends shock waves far beyond the newsroom.
Eliza Quan has spent her high school career in Southern California preparing to assume leadership of the Willoughby Bugle; she’s the most qualified, and she’s sure she’s the best for the job. Her plans are stymied, however, by Len DiMartile, a biracial (White/Japanese) ex–baseball player who apparently joined the Bugle’s staff on a whim following an injury and who easily wins the election for editor-in-chief. Eliza is angry—why should likability come before dedication and well-informed goals? Determined to contest the election results, Eliza starts a feminist movement in her high school, forming unlikely partnerships in a quest for justice. In the process Eliza learns that there are no simple answers when fighting for what’s right—and that even Len may not be as bad as she believed. Maybe even boyfriend material. The narrative tackles the complications of standing up for yourself without harming others while also exploring other dynamics, including life in a refugee family—Eliza’s parents are Chinese Vietnamese—and varying attitudes toward feminism as her mother’s pragmatism is contrasted with Eliza’s push for systemic change. Eliza’s best friend is Black, and, in a school setting that is predominately Asian, activism at the intersection of race and gender is also addressed. Quach skillfully balances all these elements, breathing life into this enemies-to-lovers story.
A fresh take on high school and activism. (Fiction. 13-18)Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-303836-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
A pleasant romance hindered by some curious choices.
Opposites attract after tragedy strikes.
Autistic white teen David Drucker spends every lunch period eating alone. When Indian-American popular girl Kit Lowell joins him one day she’s just looking for a quiet place to sit. It’s been one month since Kit’s father, a white dentist, died in a terrible car accident, but Kit is still flailing. As the two teens get to know one another and eat lunch together each day, they find themselves bringing out their own best qualities. Slowly but surely, romance blooms. There’s a warmth and ease to their relationship that the author captures effortlessly. Each chapter alternates perspective between Kit and David, and each one is fully rendered. The supporting characters are less well served, particularly Kit’s first-generation-immigrant mother. There are two major complications in Kit’s story, both involving her workaholic mother, and the lack of development defuses some potential fireworks. The central relationship is so charming and engaging that readers will tolerate the adequate tertiary characters. Less tolerable is a late-in-the-game reveal about Dr. Lowell’s accident that shifts the novel’s tone to a down note that juxtaposes poorly with everything that came before. The author pulls out in the final few pages, but it still leaves a sour taste in the mouth.
A pleasant romance hindered by some curious choices. (Romance. 12-16)Pub Date: July 11, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-553-53568-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
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