Now You See Her

February 5, 2007
Mitchard's (The Deep End of the Ocean
) unsettling thriller features a borderline psychotic heroine—a trait that readers will suspect, but not confirm until the final chapters. Bernadette Romano, who now goes by Hope Shay, is destined to be a star—or so she thinks. Through Hope's first-person narrative, readers learn that she was accepted to Starwood Academy for the Performing Arts in Michigan at the age of 15—much to the delight of her success-obsessed parents. Cast as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet
, opposite the 17-year-old hunky and semi-famous actor, Logan Rose, Hope falls in love with him. The two come up with what she calls "The Plan" (to move to L.A. or New York together, get married and become professional actors) and "The Idea" (to stage an elaborate heist wherein Hope is supposedly kidnapped, then later found by Logan, who is paid handsomely by her parents as a reward). But The Idea backfires and Hope winds up in a mental institution for staging her own disappearance. The catch is, she really is sick. Everything—The Plan, The Idea, Logan's love for her, her starring role in the play—was a figment of the now 17-year-old Hope's imagination. Although Hope/Bernadette plays the part of the unreliable narrator with unnerving precision, her disillusionment carries on too long, and readers may well feel they've been unwittingly duped. Ages 12-up.

April 1, 2018

Gr 9 Up-Seniors in high school, Amelia and Sophie couldn't be more different. Amelia has moved around the United States with her mom and younger sister. While Amelia looks for stability in Morristown, she can't help but be jealous of her classmate. Sophie has lived in Morristown her entire life, has a picture-perfect family, best friend, and boyfriend. After a tennis match between Amelia and Sophie in which Sophie wins again, Amelia feels defeated. While driving home, her car breaks down. Amelia believes she is being rescued by a good patron, but instead she is taken by force. She is able to get away from her kidnapper but is met on the road by Sophie's car, which results in a terrible accident. Amelia wakes up in a hospital room in Sophie's body while Sophie remains in a coma trapped in Amelia's body. Readers will be engrossed in the mystery that surrounds her kidnapper and how it's connected to her. Amelia is a likable and relatable character. Teens will want to keep reading to find out the truth about her mother's past and if Sophie's home life is really all that it seems to be. They will be engaged with the gripping and suspenseful plot. VERDICT This is a must-have for any library collections where thrilling characters and a heart-racing story line are popular.-Tracie Marshall, Xavier High School, Cedar Rapids, IA

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2018
A teenage tennis player wakes up after an attack and finds she's in the body of her chief rival...or is she? After losing a hard-fought match against golden girl Sophie Graham, whose life she follows on social media with great envy, Amelia Fischer remains second singles on her high school tennis team. When Amelia's car breaks down on her way home, the stranger who at first seems to be offering help attacks her. Amelia passes out, waking up in the hospital where everyone is calling her "Sophie." Looking in a mirror, she sees Sophie Graham's face staring back at her. Amelia later sees her own body in a coma in another part of the hospital. Her confusion and distress continue when she returns to school, but Amelia learns to keep cool and bide her time as she struggles to unravel this mystery. Unnervingly, Amelia's memories of her own life are fading: If she can just talk to her sister Mae, who is also her closest friend, she knows she can figure out what happened. But Mae's resentment of Sophie is so extreme that Amelia can't reason with her. The unraveling of this mystery involves exposing some of Sophie's secrets and finding the man who attacked Amelia. All major characters are white.Starting with a tantalizing premise, the plot idles for a long stretch before wowing the reader with an accelerated pace and ingenious solution. (Thriller. 14-18)

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April 30, 2018
After losing a tennis match with popular Sophie Graham, 17-year-old Amelia Fischer drives home in the rain. A blown tire leaves her stranded, and when a man stops, he knows her name. She quickly realizes, though, that he’s not there to help, and after he tries to grab her, she throws herself into traffic. When she wakes up in the hospital, she’s in Sophie’s body, while her own lies in a coma in critical condition. Amelia is terrified, but she is also determined to find out why the switch happened and how she can get back to her own body. Sifting through Sophie’s life, Amelia, who narrates, realizes that all is not perfect in Sophie’s privileged world, and she resolves to find the man who confronted her on that dark road. The delightfully snarky Amelia and her struggle to not lose herself in Sophie’s life rings true, as does her eventual realization that stepping outside her own life might be an opportunity. The plot takes some time to build, but it finds its stride in the second half. Leighton and Stropki’s compelling debut asks interesting questions about identity and memory, and a clever twist in the last act will shock readers. Ages 13–up. Agent: Rebecca Podos, Rees Literary Agency.

May 1, 2018
Grades 8-11 After a lifetime of moving from town to town on a moment's notice, Amelia finds it easier to play the prickly loner. Her tennis rival, Sophie Graham, is everything she's not?rich, popular, and polished to a shine. After a frightening encounter with a man who tries to abduct her, Amelia gets in a terrible accident and wakes up in Sophie Graham's body, as her own lies in a coma. Thrown into Sophie's life, which is not as perfect as Instagram led her to believe, Amelia must figure out who was trying to hurt her and why, and how she can get back to her own body. Family secrets, twists and turns, well-placed clues, and the fading of Amelia's memories as Sophie's take over keep the tension high. Amelia's voice is wry and funny, and the differences between the two girls are portrayed without pitting two archetypes against each other. A bit of angsty repetition is easily overlooked in this satisfying nod to Lois Duncan and Christopher Pike thrillers of the past.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)