For her senior capstone project, Pip researches the disappearance of former Fairview High student Andie, last seen on April 18, 2014, by her younger sister, Becca. Pip has known and liked Sal since childhood he’d supported her when she was being bullied in middle school. There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.Įveryone believes that Salil Singh killed his girlfriend, Andrea Bell, five years ago-except Pippa Fitz-Amobi.
Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.Īutumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart their mothers are still best friends. The novel exposes some of the double standards inherent in our purity-obsessed culture but stops short of interrogating the value of the concept of virginity, giving the story an uneasy ambiguity.Ī promising if overlong and ambivalent debut. When Mercedes’ secrets are exposed, she must confront the truths of her painful past and her complicated present.
Meanwhile, her expectation of privacy is crumbling, Zach wants to be her boyfriend, and she’s attracted to alluring new student Faye. These include her relationship with her irresponsible, image-obsessed mother and the memories of her sexual assault years ago. Eventually, Mercedes realizes that she’s using these encounters-and a secret, sex-only relationship with her lab partner, Zach-to exercise control over aspects of her life that make her feel unsafe. But she’s already violated her self-imposed boundary of working with just five deserving boys, then 10, then more. By doing this, Mercedes thinks she can control the delicacy of the service she’s offering as smoothly as she handles complex chemistry experiments.
She adheres to a strict code, working with virgins only, insisting on absolute secrecy, and maintaining a pure image by attending the weekly prayer meetings led by her best friend, Angela. Mercedes is 17, hellbent on attending MIT, and secretly sleeping with boys to coach them on how to give their girlfriends the great first sexual experience they deserve. A determined teen uses sex to regain control over her life.
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