This is why we lie

Gr 9 Up--Early one morning, Jenna is taking photos at the lake when she spies a boy, Adam, in the water struggling with another person. He calls out for help, and she discovers that the girl in the water is dead. It's even more shocking when they discover the girl, a student at Jenna's school, was murdered. Jenna's best friend, Hollie, was seen shouting at the girl before she died. Now Hollie is the number one suspect. Jenna's aunt, who she lives with, is a police detective assigned to the case. More than anything, Jenna wants to help her friend. But to do that, she'll have to dig into Adam's school life, secret parties, illicit romances, and betrayals. Jenna's not sure who to trust, and more than one person is lying. The plot keeps twisting in this murder mystery. Through Jenna and Adam's alternating perspectives, readers will try to untangle the lies and the secrets at their school. This fast-paced novel will keep teens guessing until the very end. The two main characters are assumed white and able-bodied. VERDICT Perfect for fans of One of Us is Lying, this is highly recommended for thriller shelves.--Jennifer Rummel, Cragin Lib., Colchester, CT

A shared trauma brings two teens from different sides of the tracks together. Jenna and Adam barely knew each other before the morning they both happened to be at the beach and Jenna's classmate Colleen's dead body turned up. In Gardiners Bay, the boys from the Rookwood Boarding School have a bad reputation--it's an institution for troubled kids--but good friends Adam, Max, and Tommy are just trying to get by. But when Adam finds Colleen's body, he knows something must have happened at one of the secret parties the boys throw in the woods. Jenna and her close friends Hollie and Serena attend the exclusive Preston Prep School, but when Hollie becomes the prime suspect in Colleen's death, Jenna starts her own investigation to prove her friend's innocence. As they draw closer, Jenna and Adam learn to trust each other even as they lie to protect those they love the most. Jenna and Adam share a narrative that also includes flashbacks, police transcripts, and text messages that together build a fast-paced thriller that paints a portrait of troubled teens. While Jenna and Adam are well-developed protagonists and their budding romance is sweet, paper-thin secondary characters populate a story that ultimately does not fully examine the trope of boy-crazy girls and the bad boys they fall for. All characters are assumed White. A readable thriller. (Thriller. 14-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.