Daisy chatters about Star Wars fan fiction (and calls Aza “Holmesy” ad nauseam), and Davis monologues about astronomy, while Aza obsesses over infection, the ever present, self-inflicted wound on her finger, and whether she’s “just a deeply flawed line of reasoning.” The thin but neatly constructed plot feels a bit like an excuse for Green to flex his philosophical muscles teenagers questioning the mysteries of consciousness can identify with Aza, while others might wish that something-anything-really happens.

The story revolves around anxious Aza’s dissociation from her body and life. But “if half the cells inside of you are not you, doesn’t that challenge the whole notion of me as a singular pronoun…?” When a local billionaire-and the father of her childhood friend, a white boy named Davis-disappears, Aza (who seems to be white) and her BFF, Daisy Ramirez (who is cued as Latina), plot to find him and claim the reward, amid rumors of corruption and an underexplored side plot about semi-immortal reptiles. Nerdfighter Green’s latest takes readers through Indianapolis and the human biome.Īza Holmes doesn’t feel like herself. Filled with duplicitous debutantes, homicidal siblings, all-night parties and lots of designer name-dropping, this sugary mystery may find a similar readership to the Gossip Girl set. Readers willing to take generous plot leaps-for example, when Scarlett melodramatically learns that Dan had a never-before-mentioned twin brother-should be entertained. Scarlett’s voice, peppered with the usual teen angst and snark, may not be particularly novel, but it nonetheless skillfully sets the tone for this frothy whodunit. This precocious investigator learns she may just now be in over her head.

When Scarlett’s search eventually leads to Dan’s ancestral castle in Scotland, she is shocked to discover that Dan had a twin-and that the McAndrews’ family secrets run deep.

Determined to clear her name-and her conscience-Scarlett and her American sidekick, Taylor, set out to find the culprit responsible for lacing the crisps she snacked on with peanut oil. Not quite over the fatal kiss that killed the highly allergic Dan McAndrew, young Brit Scarlett Wakefield seeks to find closure in this zippy sequel to Kiss Me, Kill Me (2008).

Kisses and lies by lauren henderson