A Lie for a Lie

A teenager grapples with anxieties past and present in Edgar winner MacCready’s (Buried) gripping coming-of-age tale. Kendra Sullivan and her best friend Jenn have decided that this summer, after their junior year of high school, will be a “breakout” one for them: Jenn plans to pursue an older boy she likes and Kendra wants to conquer the anxiety that has plagued her since she almost drowned in a boating accident at age seven. But things are complicated, not so much by the girls’ forays to the local teen hangout of Strawberry Island near Portland, Maine, but by the revelation that Kendra’s father is having an affair. Jenn, a somewhat blasé child of divorce, tells Kendra to leave it alone, but Kendra doggedly pursues her father’s infidelity, following him around town and taking incriminating photographs with the camera she always carries. Though the novel’s ending is overly tidy, MacCready does an admirable job of conveying the push and pull between childhood allegiance to one’s parents and the realization that the people who raised you are just that: people. Ages 12–up. Agent: Wendy Schmalz, Wendy Schmalz Agency. (Feb.)