Now You See Her - Hardcover

In journal entries chronicling her first year at an arts high school, 15-year-old Hope, an ambitious actress who sees herself as "a dark-skinned Gwyneth Whatever-Her-Name-Is," pleads with readers to judge her recent misdeed--a faked abduction--as the misguided act of an exploited ingenue. From Hope's passionate, sexual affair with her male lead in Romeo and Juliet to the betrayal that foils their ransom-collecting plot, it all sounds like something out of a teen-targeted Hollywood thriller. Soon enough, though, Mitchard opens telling chinks in Hope's account, ultimately revealing her protagonist's struggle with very real psychotic delusions. As in Chris Lynch's Inexcusable (2005), the intended and unintended disclosures of an unreliable narrator are fascinating, although the therapy situation that concludes Hope's story feels preachy and contrived. Even so, Mitchard's first YA effort will earn many fans, who will enjoy teasing apart the truth from self-serving bluster while connecting Hope's experience with timely questions about societal obsession with fame. Jennifer Mattson
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