The Girl with the Wrong Name

September 21, 2015
Miller (Rock God) constructs an intricate and somewhat convoluted mystery in which high school senior Theo Lane delves deep into her past and the tragic event that has at once created her present and destroyed it. Theo walks New York City with a button-cam attached to her shirt, filming the unsuspecting and fixating on a boy in a coffee shop named Andy. After they strike up a conversation, Theo determines to help Andy find Sarah, the girl he thinks he loves, but knows next to nothing about. Miller gives Theo, a supremely unreliable narrator, a voice as off-kilter as she feels, as she tries to unravel the mystery that is Sarah, as well as a day she can’t remember, after which she awoke “feeling bruised and battered” with a scar running down her face. That scar ends up being one of the least of the ones borne by Miller’s characters, as his story zigzags into increasingly grim psychological territory in ways that few readers will be able to predict. Ages 14–up. Agent: Edward Necarsulmer IV, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner.

September 15, 2015
Unable to recall what scarred her face a few months ago, a teen tries using documentary filmmaking to make sense of her life-and uncovers layers of horror. Theo combs her hair in front of the scar left by a 4-inch gash on her jaw. Is it from an accident? An assault? She has no idea. Avoiding her friends, she sits in a cafe clandestinely filming a strange boy using a button cam and an iPhone. Theo and Andy-the unknowing documentary subject-meet and travel all around New York City, ostensibly trying to track down a girl he's in love with yet somehow barely knows. In reality, they're peeling off layer after layer of Theo's own past. Theo and Andy both seem to be in trauma-induced fugue states, an unlikely coincidence; Theo's confusion and desperation could also be coming from popping Lexapro at several times her prescribed dosage and barely sleeping. Her thoughts "riddle [her] head like machine-gun fire and zoom off in a trail of smoke before [she] can make sense of them"; her "shaky, electric, fuck-you energy" quivers with naivete, her first-person narration as unreliable to herself as to readers. The horrific truth gets worse until the very end, when the puzzle pieces slam into place. A page-turning mystery with a bit of hipsterism and an onion's worth of layers. (Mystery. 14-17)

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October 1, 2015

Gr 9 Up-A search for answers only leads to more questions in this suspenseful mind-bending thriller. Theo Lane does not remember what happened to her on the night of June 17; she just knows she woke up bruised and with a giant facial gash. She's repressed any memories of the trauma and, according to her friends, is not acting like her usual self. She avoids her friends and instead focuses on making secret documentaries. Her new subject, unbeknownst to him, is a young man named Andy, who is looking for a girl with whom he spent an amazing night. Theo throws herself into helping him solve his mystery. Before long, both are wondering what they might be forgetting as they run around New York City on a dizzying journey through clues that lead them to night clubs, weddings, a women's shelter, and, most unexpectedly, Theo and Andy's shared past. A major discovery near the end reveals truth far more twisted than Theo-or readers-could have predicted. Miller takes readers further and further down the rabbit hole, making it hard to guess if anything-or anyone-is ever as it seems. Some of the plot points push the boundaries of believability, but they all serve to keep readers guessing and racing along with Theo toward the shocking truth. Captivating characters and solid writing help maintain the frantic pace and the bewildering mystery. VERDICT A riveting thriller for fans of unreliable narrators.-Amanda MacGregor, Great River Regional Library, St. Cloud, MN

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2015
Grades 10-1 On a night she doesn't remember, 17-year-old Theo Lane sustained a jagged scar on her left cheek. Two months later, she starts her senior year with BFFs Max and Louise, but things are not the same, and Theo takes refuge behind the camera, in pursuit of the perfect documentary. When a lonely boy named Andy catches her eye in a cafe, Theo quickly gets pulled into his search for the mysterious Sarah. But Andy is confusedabout places, about events, even about Sarah's appearanceand Theo is ill-equipped to help him, dependent as she is on her shrink and her Lexapro. This psychological thriller is harrowing, unnerving, and tricky for readers, since Theo is such an unreliable narrator. Can she be trusted? What does she really know about what has happened to Sarah? The plotting is superbly paced, and twists that even the most attentive reader cannot anticipate make this novel a mind-bending experience and a sure-fire winner for book discussion groups with teens and adults alike.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2016
Theo, an amateur documentary filmmaker with repressed memories of a recent trauma, can't tear her attention from the lost-looking boy in a NYC coffee shop. Her quest to help Andy find a mysterious girl named Sarah gets weirder by the day until Theo's grip on reality starts to fracture. A compelling psychological thriller with an unreliable narrator and echoes of magical realism.

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)