The Girl with the Wrong Name by Barnabas Miller

Title: The Girl with the Wrong Name
Author: Barnabas Miller
Publisher: Soho Teen
Release Date: Nov 3, 2015
Rating: 4/5

The Gist: Seventeen-year-old Theo Lane has been hiding half of her face from the public ever since “The Night In Question,” a night that left her with a long, disfiguring scar, an unquiet mind, and no memory of what happened. An aspiring documentary maker, she uses her camera to keep the world at a safe distance, shooting hours of secret footage with a hidden button cam on her jacket collar. But when Andy Reese, a forlorn and mysterious “Lost Boy,” wanders into her frame, he becomes the unknowing star of her latest project. Her unhealthy obsession with him tears her from that sheltered life behind the camera, pulling her into a perilous, mind-bending journey through Andy’s world. But is it really Andy’s world she’s investigating? Or is it her own?

Review: 

Two months ago, on "The Night In Question" something horrible happened to Theo Lane, leaving her with a long jagged scar down the side of her face.  No one seems to talk about it and even Theo doesn't seem to know what happened.  Having distanced herself from her friends, Theo begins obsessing over a mysterious boy at a coffee shop, the subject of her new project.  Breaking the first rule of documentary film making, she involves herself in her subject matter when she is unable to ignore Andy's sadness any longer.  The two set out to find the mysterious Sarah, the love of Andy's life who never showed up to meet him.  As locating her becomes more and more difficult, Theo and Andy fear that something terrible may have happened and as the coincidences between Sarah and Theo's life compound, she begins to fear that she may be more involved than she ever expected. 

I was really surprised how many twists there were in this novel.  It was slow going at first, and I actually contemplated tossing it on the DNF pile as it seemed to be just another "search for the elusive 'perfect' girl leads boy to see what was right in front of him all along" story.  However, I'm very glad I didn't as this is definitely NOT that kind of story.  As more and more secrets are revealed we find that there is something far more sinister going on here and Theo is smack in the middle of it.  Along with her, we question what we are seeing and what the truth really is.  This leads to a very suspenseful and exciting conclusion and while some plot twists were easy to ascertain, it also held some genuine surprises.  

One place where this novel fell off was in characterization.  Theo was defined almost solely by The Night In Question and, by the end, there was a real question about how much of her personality was her own and how much was borrowed from somebody else.  Andy was harder to pin down.  At times he seemed like a typical lovesick teenager and at other times he became something darker, and more sinister.  The minor cast featured Theo's mother, stepfather, and her friends Lou and Max.  They were less interesting and mostly served as Theo's sounding board.

Bottom Line: The Girl With The Wrong Name is a suspenseful thriller that will appeal to any mystery fan. 

Teaching/Parental Notes:

Age: 15 and up
Sex: Kissing
Violence: Rape, Murder by fire, 
Inappropriate Language: Shit, Slut, Bitch, Fuck,
Substance Use/Abuse: Underage Drinking, Prescription Drug Abuse

Book Review: The Sweet Dead Life by Joy Preble

Title: The Sweet Dead Life

Author: Joy Preble
Publisher: Soho Press
Release Date: May 14, 2013
Rating: 1/5

Cover Impressions:  Cute cover but looks slightly home-made. 

The Gist: Jenna has been suffering from a mysterious illness and no doctors can pinpoint the cause.  This, coupled with her mother's debilitating mental illness, makes for a very hard life.  Her brother, Casey, tries his best to hold it all together.  When a late-night trip to the emergency room is pre-empted by an accident.  When Jenna wakes up, Casey is by her side but something is different.  Her brother has started acting almost too good and the EMT who added them after her accident seems to have taken an unhealthy interest in her family.  The tests reveal that Jenna's mysterious illness is the result of poisoning and that Casey must help discover how and save her life.

Review:
I requested this particular EARC because the premise sounded interesting and I had hope for a strong and amusing main character.  Unfortunately, Jenna is not only boring, she is incredibly dense.  She does not seem to put clues together, despite the fact that they are smacking her in the face.  She also has a penchant for making lists and an obsession with her brother's (and everyone else's) weed use, both of which interrupt the flow of the story.  The other characters are not much better.  They are all flat with little to no personality.  Even Casey, is stripped of anything interesting when he is "angelfied".  Perhaps, he might have been a little more interesting if we had had more time to get to know him before the accident.

On the topic of angelization.  The blurb for this book clearly gives away the fact that Casey has become an angel and yet it takes Jenna AGES to figure this out.  I do not understand why the publisher would put this information in the blurb when appears to have been meant to be one of the big mysteries of the book.  The rest of the plot, unfortunately, is just as predictable.  Very early on, hints reveal the bad guy and it was at this point that I completely lost interest. 

The ending of this book was a little to easy for my liking.  Everything is resolved - even the mother's mental illness.  Which, makes me think that the author was using this plot device as a cheap ploy.  All in all, this book was a disappointment. 
 
Teaching/Parental Notes:

Age: 15 and up
Gender: Both
Sex: Masturbation
Violence: Poisoning
Inappropriate Language: Shit, Ass
Substance Use/Abuse: Marijuana use