The Girl with the Wrong Name

Miller (Rock God) constructs an intricate and somewhat convoluted mystery in which high school senior Theo Lane delves deep into her past and the tragic event that has at once created her present and destroyed it. Theo walks New York City with a button-cam attached to her shirt, filming the unsuspecting and fixating on a boy in a coffee shop named Andy. After they strike up a conversation, Theo determines to help Andy find Sarah, the girl he thinks he loves, but knows next to nothing about. Miller gives Theo, a supremely unreliable narrator, a voice as off-kilter as she feels, as she tries to unravel the mystery that is Sarah, as well as a day she can’t remember, after which she awoke “feeling bruised and battered” with a scar running down her face. That scar ends up being one of the least of the ones borne by Miller’s characters, as his story zigzags into increasingly grim psychological territory in ways that few readers will be able to predict. Ages 14–up. Agent: Edward Necarsulmer IV, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner. (Nov.)