Hancock Park

June 29, 2009
Set in Los Angeles, teenage author Kaplan's debut details 16-year-old Becky's struggles with her parents' divorce and her social life after her best friend moves to New York. Readers (and Becky) learn of her intelligence when she takes an IQ test and has high results, but little in her observations and narrative suggest a genius to accompany that score (her involvement in the Model UN at all-girl's academy feels forced). Her desire to be popular fluctuates between her scorn for the Trinity, the popular girls in her junior class, and her joy at hanging out with them ("I had gone out with an extremely attractive, very popular boy, and I was friends with the most popular girls in school. Life was good"). Slowly, Becky makes some positive changes-she switches from a prescription-happy psychiatrist to a more effectual one, and realizes her new boyfriend is a jerk. Her problems will resonate with and be familiar to readers, though her personal growth feels rushed and does not build in a realistic way. Ages 14-up.