Michele
Jaffe
ISBN: 978-1595143969
Razorbill,
2012
Plot
Summary: Eve
is a runaway with a sad and shady past. She’s living day by day barely making
ends meet so when Bain and Bridgette show up at the Starbucks where she works
and offer her a “job” she can’t refuse she jumps at the chance to get out of
her stuck life. Being a dead ringer for their missing cousin, Aurora, the twins
offer Eve $250,000 to impersonate Aurora
until she comes off age and can claim her inheritance. Sounds crazy, right?
Well, after a couple of weeks learning all about the family, Eve takes things
into her own hands and stages her return earlier than planned. Luckily, she
slides right into the role of Aurora easily until
she begins to learn more and more about why Aurora may have disappeared. Her best friend,
Liza, committed suicide . . . or was it actually murder? When Eve begins seeing
Liza’s ghost telling her to seek the truth, Eve begin to suspect everyone
around her of keeping secrets. Is she more “disposable” to Bain and Bridgette
than she thought? Was Liza murdered? Why did Aurora run away? Is Eve safe with the family?
Critical
Evaluation: For those astute mystery readers, the true
identity of Eve is pretty obvious from the start but Jaffe clearly realized
this possibility because even thought you think you know where the story is
going she throws major curve balls and red herrings at you that makes you
second guess your predictions on what will happen. Eve’s secret is truly
shocking; however, there were some moments that seemed contrived or appeared
and were never mentioned again, such as Bridgette’s experiments in lesbianism,
Liza’s supposed lesbian relationship with Coralee, and Liza’s supposed past. It
seems shocking that Aurora
wouldn’t have known about these things. There is also an underwhelming
“romance” between Eve and the main detective on the case which seems forced
(Ah—all YA books must have romance! type of thing). The ghostly aspect is also
never truly explained as to whether or not it is just Eve’s subconscious or a
real ghost. Despite these few problems, the story is an excellent mystery that
keeps you guessing even when you think you know the solution and it has the
whole “rich brat” society feel to it. I recommend it to mystery buffs.
Reader's
Annotation:
How would you like to be down on your luck and be offered, by complete
strangers, the chance at $250,000 to impersonate a missing girl for a few
months? Would you do it?
Author
Information:
Michele Jaffe is the author of the Bad
Kitty series of YA books as well as thrillers and romances for adults.
After getting her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Harvard, she retired
from academia and decided to become an FBI special agent or glamorous showgirl,
but somehow instead ended up writing. A native of Los
Angeles, California, Jaffe and her
sparkly shoes currently reside in New
York City (Jaffe, 2012).
Genre: Mystery
Curriculum
Ties: N/A
Booktalking
Ideas: Read
the first appearance of Liza’s ghost.
Reading
Level/Interest Age:
14+
Challenge
Issues: Lesbianism
Challenge
Defense: If
this book were challenged, I would make sure the library has a Challenge
Defense File ready for such a situation. Inside the Challenge Defense File,
librarians and the public could find:
·
A
copy of the American Library Association’s Library
Bill of Rights. (Can be found and printed from ALA’s website at http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill)
·
A
copy of the American Library Association’s Freedom to Read Statement (Can be
found and printed from ALA’s
website at http://www.ala.org/offices/oif/statementspols/ftrstatement/freedomreadstatement)
·
A
copy of the library’s own selection policy (my library, the La Vista Public
Library, has a policy but it is not online so I can’t link to it as an
example).
·
A
copy of the library’s citizen’s complaint/reconsideration form (my library, the
La Vista Public Library’s, form is called the City of La Vista Service Request form).
·
Copies
of reviews—both good and bad—from reputable library and publishing services to
justify why a book was selected for inclusion in the collection. These include
not only reviews from such journals as School
Library Journal, VOYA, Horn Book, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist, but also any mention of books
on YALSA lists and other copies of articles about any awards or nominations
such books may have received.
·
Include
a short rationale file for other coworkers so if the librarian in charge of
selecting materials is not available when a challenge occurs the other staff
members have some information to go by (the rational would include such
information as a short summary, what could be challenged, reviews, awards and
nominations, etc.)
·
Include
for staff members a copy of “Strategies and Tips for Dealing with Challenges to
Library Materials,” a document written by the American Library Association.
Make sure that staff reviews this document periodically so they are prepared
and know how to face such situations. (Can be found and printed from ALA’s website at http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips)
Reason
for Inclusion:
A mystery that keeps you guessing.
References:
Jaffe,
M. (2012). Bio. Retrieved from http://www.michelejaffe.com/about/
No comments:
Post a Comment