Deb Caletti
Simon & Schuster, 2020
355 pages
Grades 9-Up
Mystery
Sydney happily attends boarding school and spends weekends and most breaks with her stable grandmother in Seattle. Dad is not particularly interested in her and fading movie star mom sees her in the summer and for Christmas. This summer, Sydney leaves to stay with Mom in San Francisco with mixed feelings. She would rather be in Seattle with her friends and resents having to be transplanted. To make matters worse, she is met at the airport by Mom's new boyfriend, an older slightly creepy guy. Jake takes her back to the amazing house he is renting for Mom on the beach. The summer progresses as Sydney copes with being an accessory for her mother's life, turns sixteen, fights off unwelcome advances and violations from older men, and falls in love. One of the rooms in this incredible house contains large mysteriously wrapped packages, which are revealed to be important works of art. Are they authentic? Is Jake somehow dealing with stolen artwork? Sydney learns to stand up for herself as she must finally come to terms with what Jake is up to and detangle herself from the unhealthy relationship with Mom. Unfortunately, this does not come without a price and important relationships are sacrificed as Sydney experiences fallout from her choices, both those she herself has made and those made for her.
Deb Caletti is a very reliable teen author. I have read her work since her early days and always find her books compelling and entertaining. This story is a departure from 2019's Printz honor book A Heart in a Body in the World in that it is more of a thriller/mystery. It shares some common themes, especially those of a young woman trying to make her way in a misogynistic world. This is especially difficult for Sydney to accomplish with a lack of role models. Her father is a described "lady's man" and her mother is perpetuating female dependency on men and allowing herself to be abused by her boyfriend. The mother's narcissism does not allow for her to be a proper role model for Sydney, nor any help as the teen is constantly harassed by older men. The book is set up like a police investigation and chapter headings include objects and witnesses that foreshadow events to come. The reader knows that something horrible happens and eventually realize that it has to do with the stolen art. The mystery becomes: is Jake really a criminal and how will this all play out? There are surprises at the end and though Sydney finds her voice, it all does not end "happily ever after". The San Francisco setting is fully realized and adds a dimension to the story. Some of the characters are a bit under developed and under used, but in a mystery one comes to expect that a bit. I enjoyed this book and found myself turning pages to see what will happen next. I think teen readers will also enjoy it, but they may not gravitate to it on their own.
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