Deviant

April 22, 2013
Abigail Thom was given up by her mother as a newborn, and after an itinerant childhood in Scotland, a 16-year-old Abigail is surprised to learn that her birth mother has just died, leaving her a letter, a large sum of money, and a one-way plane ticket to Los Angeles to live with a family Abigail never knew existed. Out of place with her hardened demeanor (not to mention her Scottish accent), Abigail gradually begins to let down her guard around her new older sister, Becky, and Becky’s graffiti artist friends, but she still senses that something is not right within her privileged new family. Readers will enjoy Abigail’s blunt voice and savvy as she works to unravel the mystery of her parents’ pasts. Fitzgerald’s (Amelia O’Donohue Is So Not a Virgin) experience writing thrillers for adults comes through in this atmospheric story that features codebreaking, an SF edge, and many twists. The ending, while satisfying on its own, is ripe for a sequel. Ages 14–up. Agent: Lucy Juckes, Jenny Brown Associates.

May 1, 2013
A promising character study is derailed by a conspiracy-theory plot that comes out of nowhere. Ever since the death of her guardian when she was 9, Abigail has knocked around Glasgow's foster-care system. But when she's 16, her birth mother dies--and she's left Abigail money, a one-way ticket to America and a letter. Abigail actually has a father and a sister in Los Angeles that she's never met, and her mother's dying wish is that Abigail live with them now. After the realistic depiction of Abigail's struggles to get out of Glasgow, LA at first seems like a fairy tale to Abigail. There's a rich father with connections, an enthusiastic stepmother and her sister Becky, who brings Abigail into the world of underground graffiti street art. But the mysterious death of her sister sends the plot swerving into conspiracy theories about teens being put under mind control, and it devolves into describing Abigail's attempts to figure out how her father and sister are connected to this. Life for Abigail in Glasgow is presented as gritty, dark and hard, beautifully demonstrating Abigail's inner reserves of strength, but grafting the mind-control plot onto it turns the story into a generic paranoia thriller. (Thriller. 14 & up)

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July 1, 2013

Gr 9 Up-Abigail is an "unloved nobody"-at least that's what she calls herself and all the other teens who live at the home for abandoned children in Scotland. Everything changes, though, when the social worker tells her that her birth mother has died and left her something. That something is a letter telling her that Abigail's father and older sister, Becky, are waiting for her in LA. There is also a one-way plane ticket and bundles of cash. Not having many other options, Abigail gets on a plane and meets up with her new life and her new family. But things are weird in LA: her father has secrets she can't crack, her stepmother is too good to be true, and free-spirited Becky is taking her to underground graffiti parties with all of her friends. Then, someone dies and everything turns even more mysterious. This thriller has great character development and will keep readers hooked until the cliff-hanger ending. The first half is a bit slow, but it sets up the characters and scenes well, and once the mystery really gets going, readers will be glued to their seats to find out just what everyone is hiding. There's quite a bit of crude language in this one, but overall it's a great action-filled mystery.-Traci Glass, Eugene Public Library, OR

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2013
Grades 8-11 After years shuffling among temporary-care facilities, 16-year-old Abigail is given a chance for a better life. Her birth mother has died and left her 50,000 and a one-way ticket to a family she didn't know she had, in L.A. Life there with her wealthy, seemingly perfect family is unreal but happy until her suspicious nature is piqued by her father's secretive pharmaceutical business and her sister's double life as a graffiti artist whose work conceals a coded message. When her sister dies of an overdose, Abigail knows it wasn't suicide, but she's reluctant to suspect her fatheruntil she discovers the truth about his business. FitzGerald excels with Abigail's hard voice and in contrasting the rough, intimate streets of Glasgow with the glittering superficiality of L.A. Once the cryptic clues coalesce, the niggling sense of unease disappears in favor of rushed explanations and exaggerated plotting. Although Abigail remains compelling, the story of teenage mind control is less so. Still, for a while, this is a good, gritty drama.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)