BOOK REVIEW: NOW YOU SEE HER

NOW YOU SEE HER- Mystery book review

NOW YOU SEE HER

Jacquelyn Mitchard

Harper Teen

2007

Available: hardcover & paperback

    In a journal chronicling her first year attending the elite Starwood Academy for Performing Arts, fifteen-year-old Bernadette Romano is obsessed with acting. And Fame. She even has a stage name, Hope Shay. Her emotions run up and down, hot and cold as she copes with the alienation of students jealous of her talent. Suddenly, all her dreams seem to come true when she lands the lead in Romeo and Juliet and Logan Rose, playing Romeo, falls I love with her. When she turns 16, they plan to runaway together to New York. It's perfect until she's abducted and everything in her world changes. Even worse, some people think her whole ordeal was a hoax as her story unravels.

   This is a great teen psychological thriller written as a journal. It reveals the angst of a troubled teen, trying to recover from a traumatic year away from home at school. For the reader, the true story begins to unfold as they realize Hope is an unreliable narrator. Leaving them with the question: What really happened? It's a compelling read.

Target Audience: 7-10

Mystery/Suspense: Tense

Kid Appeal: High