YA Pick: The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett

The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett
Sourcebooks Fire
Chelsea Sedoti
2017
400 pages
ISBN: 9781492636083

Available January 2017

Twisted and taut, The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett will pull at your heartstrings, make you angry, and leave you breathless. Set in a small town that nobody cares about and where nothing interesting ever happens, the story opens with the disappearance of a popular cheerleader. Lizzie is the golden girl that every boy dreams about and every girl tries to be or at least align herself with in the glorified atmosphere that surrounds Lizzie.

Introvert, passive Hawthorn throws  herself into the search for clues in Lizzie's disappearance. Although she hates Lizzie and is secretly jealous of her, Hawthorn will do anything--literally--to find the truth.  Driven by curiosity and a strange passion for wild storytelling, Hawthorn paints a picture of what might have happened to Lizzie.

Did she just disappear? Or did someone wish her harm? Hawthorn does not buy the idea that Lizzie's boyfriend Enzo did it. Maybe Lizzie somehow magically shed her human form and became a wolf. She was--after all--fascinated by wolves. Hawthorn begins to research werewolf lore obsessed with the idea that something magical must have happened to Lizzie.

In order to carry out her ruse, Hawthorn takes a job (Lizzie's old job) at a nearby diner. There she meets tortured musician and Lizzie's ex-boyfriend Enzo. Now Hawthorn is in the position she's always wanted. She is living Lizzie's charmed life. She has the boyfriend and the job.

The closer Hawthorn gets to  Enzo, the more she finds herself falling in love with him. This is all wrong. Enzo is an adult--several years older than Hawthorn. That, and the possibility that he's a murderer should be enough to give Hawthorn a pause, but it doesn't. If anything, it seems to drive her into his arms. Hawthorn's thoughts are  almost too painful to read at this point.


Hawthorn has a difficult time processing what really happened to Lizzie. With her imaginative storytelling behind her, Hawthorn is forced to face facts. How many times does a person lie to herself and to others? What if your entire persona is a lie? What if reality and persona are completely at odds? Wise Yoda-like hippie Sundog tells Hawthorn, "You only know the part of the story people want you to see."

The book comes to an end with Hawthorn learning about real life, not the magical dream world she seems to have built. The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett is difficult to digest. It will haunt readers long after they have finished the book.

Recommended grade 9-up. Teen behavior, mean girls, bullying, mature content, teen sex.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received the ARC from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

YA Pick: The Forgetting

The Forgetting
by Nicole Maggi 
February 3, 2015;
 ISBN: 9781492603566; $9.99; Trade Paper
Sourcebooks Fire– Young Adult Fiction, Mysteries & Detective Stories
Ages 14-17, Grades 8-12

Georgie’s new heart saved her life…but now she’s losing her mind.

When Georgie Kendrick wakes up after a heart transplant she feels…different. The organ beating in her chest isn’t in tune with the rest of her body. Like it still belongs to someone else.  Someone with terrible memories…memories that are slowly replacing her own. Georgie discovers her heart belonged to a teenage girl who lived a rough life on the streets. Everyone thinks she committed suicide, but only Georgie knows the truth. And now Georgie has to catch a killer--before she loses herself completely.  

Fans of Lisa McMann and April Henry will devour this edgy, gripping thriller with a twist readers won’t see coming!

Nicole Maggi wrote her first story in third grade about a rainbow and a unicorn. After working as an actress in NYC, she now lives in Los Angeles with her family and two oddball cats. Visit her

Interview with the author: Nicole answers my questions:

1. Where did you get the idea about the donor heart?

 

I’ve always been fascinated by this phenomenon of cellular memory, that organ recipients retain something from their donor, whether it’s a taste for a certain food or the memory of who killed them (which is a documented case of a 10-year-old recipient who helped solve the murder of her 10-year-old donor). When I first started working on the story, I knew I wanted to write about a girl who goes on a journey into a world she’s never imagined to find out who her donor was. Working from there, I chose to make the main character, Georgie, from a world of privilege and that the journey she goes on is into an underbelly of society that she’s never had to confront before. I knew the donor had to be her complete opposite; someone who absolutely inhabits that underbelly. From there, the character of Jane Doe grew into a trafficked girl, someone caught in a web of darkness that she’s unable to escape. Most importantly, I wanted the donor heart to change Georgie, for the better.

 

2. Do you believe organs can take on attributes of the donor?

 

I do, actually. Even though there’s no real science to back up the idea of cellular memory, there are enough cases of people reporting personality changes, memories, and even sexuality to make me a believer.

 

3. What was your favorite book as a child?

 

CHARLOTTE’S WEB. It broke my heart over and over.

 

as a teen?

 

This gets harder, but I’ll have to go with The Song of the Lioness Series by Tamora Pierce because those books are the reason I’m a writer.

 

as an adult?

 

Okay, that’s like impossible. But if I had to list just one I’m gonna go with GONE WITH THE WIND by Margaret Mitchell. I’d grown up on the movie (it’s one of my favorites) but I didn’t read the book until I was in my late twenties. That book…I just can’t even talk about how incredible it is. The character of Scarlett O’Hara is one of the richest, deepest, most complex, flawed and beautiful character ever committed to paper.

 

4. If you had to compare your style with any other YA writer, who would you compare yourself to?

 

That’s really hard! I hope I don’t sound too egotistical but I think maybe Maggie Stiefvater. She’s a very lyrical writer and I think I am too.

 

5. What YA author do you read and say, "WOW!"

 

Libba Bray. She’s such an amazing writer. I’m always floored by her. I read A GREAT AND TERRIBLE BEAUTY over one weekend at a beach house. I was there with a bunch of friends and while they were off committing various acts of debauchery I was lying on the living room floor, reading. I’ve loved all of her books but I think GOING BOVINE is a magnificent achievement. Also, she’s a fabulously awesome person in real life.

 

6. What's more scary: going onstage to a packed house or having a manuscript in front of editors?

 

Having a manuscript in front of editors BY FAR. Yes, I get nervous before I go onstage, but once I’m out there, the nerves disappear. When I have a book out on submission I can’t sleep, my stomach is in constant knots, I’m checking my email every ten seconds and jumping every time the phone rings. It’s AWFUL.

 

7. After the Twin Willows trilogy, where do you see your writing going?

 

I’m actually in the middle of writing the third book in the trilogy, so it’s hard to see anything beyond that at the moment! After I finish the trilogy, I’ll be writing another thriller for Sourcebooks. It’s a spy novel that will be more along the lines of THE FORGETTING. I’d also love to get back to writing historicals someday. My first two novels (still unpublished) were historical fiction and I really love living in a different time period through my characters.

 

8. If you could do anything other than write or act, what would you see yourself doing as a career?

 

I love art history. I took this amazing art history class when I was in college with a renowned art historian, and she actually encouraged me to pursue it as a career. I didn’t do that…and a small part of me wishes that I had. Hey, there’s still time, right? If this writing thing doesn’t work out…

 

9. Are you a dog person or a cat person?

 

I love dogs but I’m allergic to most of them. So by default I’m a cat person. We have two, named Sawyer and Hurley (yes, after the LOST characters). They are both very beautiful and a little odd.

Hilarious High School Pick: Don't You Wish

Don't You Wish
by Roxanne St. Claire
Delacourte Press
2012
360 pages

I almost missed this one! Don't be foolish...go...no RUN...to your favorite bookstore or with a few clicks of the mouse, grab up this sweet read.

Annie Nutter is an invisible. She is a normal high school girl...not popular, not cool, not beautiful, and certainly not rich. Annie and her BFF Lizzie dream of the day when Shane Matthews might speak to them or notice them. When Shane finally speaks to Annie, it's a cruel joke.

When Annie's mom sees her old flame in a magazine spread, she realizes that she could have married the man who is now a billionaire plastic surgeon who lives in a mansion featured in Architectural Digest. Instead, she's married to Annie's father, a hopeless inventor who has more ideas than money. Annie questions her mother and wonders what her life would have been like if her mom had married the other man--her old college flame. Through some sort of magical weird twist in the universe, Annie wakes up in another life. She lives in Star Island, Florida, the pampered, bratty daughter of her mother in real life and her new, billionaire father (Mom's old flame).

Annie is now Ayla Monroe. She is the "it" girl at her snooty school and is surrounded by a circle of vicious harpies who shoplift, curse, and break all the rules they can. Annie is mortified and will not steal anything. She has to pretend to be "Ayla," and she can't imagine why these pampered princesses feel the need to steal just for stealing's sake.

Ayla (Annie) is being pushed into losing her virginity to hot boyfriend Ryder on prom night. Annie meets quiet, science geek Charlie and is intrigued. Charlie wonders why rich girl Ayla Monroe is now speaking to him, and Ayla's inner circle is wondering why she's acting so weird and talking to all the nobodies.

Ayla/Annie has the chance to choose which life to live. What will she do? What if she can save a life if she makes the right choice. What will Ayla do? What will Annie do?

Highly recommended grade 9-up. Profanity and talk about losing virginity place this book at the high school level, and it's too bad. So much is cool about Don't You Wish, I only wish the author would have made it middle school-worthy. It's a clever, funny book and Annie is a character girls will not forget.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

This review has been posted in compliance with the FTC requirements set forth in the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (available at ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf)