THE GIRL YOU THOUGHT I WAS

A 17-year-old girl knows she shouldn’t shoplift, but it’s the only way she can cope with the rage.

Morgan, a petite redhead, has been furious since her mother left. She loves her dad, but sometimes the anger gets the better of her. That’s when she steals: a lip gloss, a bikini, jewelry. Morgan’s luck finally runs out when a security guard sees her slip a pair of $185 sunglasses into her purse. Morgan, always one of the good kids, is now an offender, with required community service. For the rest of the summer, Morgan will spend her Saturday mornings at Rita’s Reruns, a nonprofit thrift shop. Luckily, Rita is lovely and supportive, if eccentric. And maybe it’s a small perk of the job that Rita’s nephew, Eli, is smoking hot. Blond, tanned, and fit, Eli’s recovering from a disabling hockey injury, and he’s super into Morgan. However, Morgan’s not willing to let Eli find out about her shoplifting; can she juggle a new relationship, her recovery, and a whole slew of lies? When the inevitable catastrophe comes, at least she’s prepared for it. The book follows a white default; main characters are white, and there is some diversity in secondary characters.

Morgan, a likable, troubled protagonist, hits all the requisite issue-book beats with a believable and sympathetic journey from self-loathing and crime toward healing