LET’S GET LOST

Isabel, a 16-year-old British teen, passes herself off as 18 to hook up with an older boy, embarks on alcohol binges, bullies classmates, is rude and is oh-so-bored-with-it-all—but she is covering up deep emotional pain. The problem is readers are not clued in to her past until the last 20 pages. Until the cause of the pain is revealed, Isabel comes across as an unreasonably angry shrew. She crushes on Smith, the older guy with whom she loses her virginity, and then emotionally slams him. Unwilling to broadcast the sexual relationship, or end it, Isabel deceives her father and friends and sneaks off to passionate weekends in Smith’s arms. Manning provides an all-access portrait of a hurting and at-risk girl, causing the work to read a bit long. That said, this title will please fans of teen titles featuring bold and layered female characters such as Joyce Carol Oates’s Big Mouth and Ugly Girl (2002) or Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (May 2006), co-authored by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. (Fiction. YA)