Pretend She's Here

February 1, 2019

Gr 9 Up-It has been exactly a year since Emily Lonergan's best friend, Lizzie Porter, has died from cancer. Lizzie's family moves out of town and Emily has taken to talking to Lizzie's spirit throughout the school day. As Emily is going home from school on Lizzie's one year death anniversary, Chloe, Lizzie's little sister, approaches Emily and tells her that she and her parents came to town to visit Lizzie's grave. Chloes asks Emily if she would like to come with them. Emily quickly agrees and the girls get in the Porter's van. As they pass the cemetery, Mrs. Porter tells Emily that she is now going to be Emily and live with them. When Emily struggles and tries to escape, she is drugged. When she wakes up groggy, her hair has been dyed to look like Lizzy's and contacts have been put in her eyes to match Lizzy's. Emily gives up hope that she will be found, and Mrs. Porter enrolls her at the local high school. Lots of twists and turns then occur leading up to the thrilling climax and denouement. The author's excellent, vivid writing style and extremely captivating plotting will immerse teens. Readers will feel like they are a part of Emily's world and experiences. VERDICT A must-purchase for all YA collections.-Jill Baetiong, Bloomingdale Public Library, IL

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2018
Nearly a year after the death of her best friend, Lizzie, 15-year-old Emily is abducted by Lizzie's parents to fill the void in their lives.Emily wakes up in Maine, far from her Connecticut home, to find her hair dyed black and her eyes changed to green by contacts, making her look just like Lizzie. Lizzie's mother tells her that as long as she cooperates, no harm will come to her or her family. Good behavior earns her a television and meals upstairs. Bad behavior means starvation and isolation. Emily begins to play along, determined to keep her family safe while at the same time finding a way to escape. But with Lizzie's mother, father, and sister always watching, she fears she will be trapped in this nightmare forever. Then she meets Casey, a musically gifted boy who is legally blind. Together they come up with a plan to help Emily escape her prison. In this psychological thriller that studies the depths of grief, Emily's empathy for her kidnappers keeps the sensationalism to a minimum by personalizing the betrayal. A preponderance of backstory slows the narrative and deflates the tension. Ultimately this is a story about love and loss threaded through with moments of a tense thriller. All main characters are Irish-American Catholics.An intriguing concept overtaken by thin characters and poor pacing. (Thriller. 12-15)

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January 1, 2019
Grades 8-12 After she loses her best friend, Lizzie, to cancer, Emily's life takes a series of unimaginable turns?all at the hands of trusted adults. A deranged, suspenseful fate awaits her when she accepts a ride from Lizzie's grieving parents, who kidnap her and try to turn her into the daughter they lost by dyeing Emily's hair, forcing her to wear colored contacts, and imprisoning her in a room. Emily lives there in fear for 69 days, enduring the worst kind of emotional trauma and plotting her escape once her kidnappers enroll her in school. Rice has created a masterful narrative full of intrigue and heart-pounding moments that will draw in readers and allow them to experience what could happen when depression drives someone to do the unthinkable. Using flashbacks, rich descriptions, and realistic story elements, Rice weaves together a tense tale of mystery and surreal experiences. Reading like a Emma Donoghue's Room (2010) with a YA twist, Rice's latest doesn't disappoint.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)