Our teen book spotlight this week is on books that feature books that have some unreliable narrators!! An unreliable narrator is a character who is telling their story but you have no idea if you can trust them or not; you are getting their point of view but there may have been some incidents throughout the plot that cause you not to trust their side of the story. As you read through the action, you will find yourself asking what is really going on and maybe changing your opinions multiple times until you get to the end. Most of our titles this week lend themselves to being realistic due to the storylines of our narrators but there are a handful of historical ones as well. These books and more can be found by searching the catalog using the search tag #yanarrators as well as on Libby and Hoopla. Check back next week for a new teen book spotlight and if you have any book suggestions, please let us know!!
Bone Gap by Laura Ruby--In Bone Gap there is a general acceptance of the societal gaps that allow people to just disappear. It happened with Finn and Sean O'Sullivan's mother, who left them for a new life in Oregon with a new man. However, Finn knows that Roza, the latest to fall through a gap, was actually kidnapped, and that a dangerous man with a face he can't remember is to blame. Sean doesn't believe him, and may in fact blame him for Roza's disappearance, leaving Finn on his own to investigate.
After by Amy Efaw--Devon Davenport is responsible, hard-working, and mature. But when the police find her home sick as they investigate an abandoned baby that has been left in the trash, it becomes apparent that the baby is Devon's. Now the girl who refused to believe she was pregnant is an attempted murderer.
Lost by Jacqueline Davies--Essie recognizes right away that Harriet is a lost woman. She shouldn't be working in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory; she's too educated and upper crust. But as she and Harriet become better friends, it becomes hard to know who is lost and who will be found in the novel set in Manhattan in the early 1900's.
Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson--Mary Addison has spent the last six years of her life locked up in juvenile detention, convicted of killing a white baby who was left in the care of Mary's mother. Now 15, the African American teen finds herself pregnant and at risk of having her own child taken away. Desperate to keep her baby, Mary makes a startling confession—she did not kill the baby in her mother's care. But with a conviction hanging over her head, it might be hard to convince anyone she's telling the truth.
Liar by Justine Larbalestier--When Micah – a compulsive liar who finds deception far more appealing than truth – is suspected of murdering her boyfriend, she resolves to tell her story honestly and without omission. As Micah describes the events that took place both before and after her boyfriend's murder, the supernatural and outlandish tale she pieces together combine truth and lies in such a way that readers are never sure whether Micah can be trusted.
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein--Trapped inside a cell in Nazi-occupied France, a British spy agrees to reveal war-related secrets in order to avoid torture. Rather than simply describe technical details, however, she writes about her friendship with Maddie, the pilot who flew her to France, and the daily struggles of those involved in the British war effort. In between these moving accounts, she also describes her experiences with the SS officer who has complete control over whether she lives or dies.