Beautiful Malice

Starred review from May 31, 2010
"I didn't go to Alice's funeral." So opens Australian author James's impressive debut, a searing coming-of-age novel that deftly intertwines two violent backstories. Studious Katherine Patterson, who's reading a book under a tree during lunchtime at her Sydney high school, is surprised when Alice Parrie, "beautiful, popular, impossible to miss," hands Katherine an invitation to her 18th birthday party. Alice draws Katherine, who has her reasons for remaining aloof from others, into an addictive relationship that fatally sours as one disturbing secret after another comes to light. James, gifted with unusual insight into teenage agonies, probes Katherine's raw-nerve guilt over her sister Rachel's murder, Alice's self-destructive narcissism, and the healing power of young love. This unflinching exploration of psychological manipulation and the tragedies it creates introduces a promising new talent in literary suspense.

May 15, 2010
Two teenage girls revolve around the terrible gravity that draws them together.

The latest beneficiary of publishing's bidding wars is Australian writer James, whose personal success story has earned more ink than her debut novel. After scoring a very lucrative two-book deal, the novelist's debut finally reaches the United States. Unfortunately, it's a clichd, often unremarkable bit of popular fiction."I didn't go to Alice's funeral," confesses our dizzyingly chilly narrator, Katherine Patterson, whose story leaps between pivotal moments in her life. From the present, she describes life with her young daughter, Sarah. In flashbacks, we learn her real identity as Katherine Boydell, who changed her name and moved in with her aunt after the tragedy that killed her younger sister, Rachel, whose death weighs heavily on Katherine's conscience. In her new school, the guarded schoolgirl meets a kindred spirit in Alice Parrie, a hard-drinking free spirit who keeps her own secrets close to her chest, and has a creepy, prescient knowledge of Katherine's true nature."It's as if you just don't want to get involved," Alice says."As if you've—oh, I don't know, got some kind of big dark secret and you don't want to make friends with anyone in case they find out what it is." Before long, the author cues up Alice's inevitable makeover into a frenzied villainess. Yet it's not all as generic as it could be. James has a particular gift for dialogue and pacing, crafting a high-school potboiler that sounds right, is geographically universal and rushes headlong toward a particularly brutal mid-book climax. However, a manipulative ending straight out of a B-movie dissipates the narrative's early momentum.

Hollywood ingnues, get ready—a script should be available soon.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

June 15, 2010

Katherine, a high school senior, is trying to recover from her younger sister's rape and murder. Grieving and feeling guilty for her part in the tragedy, she changes her last name and moves to a new town to live with her aunt to escape the press and publicity, figuring she can finish her last year of school by flying under the radar. However, popular and gregarious Alice takes an interest in her, and soon meek Katherine is caught up by Alice's outrageous, domineering personality. It becomes apparent that Alice is not stable and that she has ulterior motives for befriending Katherine. VERDICT James's debut will appeal to fans of psychological fiction--early Ruth Rendell comes to mind. The choice to make the characters teenagers is a little odd and sometimes hard to swallow (they sound awfully wise and act in very mature ways), but the story is intriguing if predictable. Recommended for all thriller collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/1/10; library marketing.]--Rebecca Vnuk, Glen Ellyn P.L., Forest Park, IL

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2010
Australian author James U.S. debut speaks directly to older teens and twentysomethings. Katherine, a self-imposed outsider who narrates her own story, may be wrapped in guilt following the tragic death of her sister, but she is still recognizably 17longing for friendship and fun, searching for love, committment, and sex. When charismatic classmate Alice befriends her, emotional baggage and all, she is surprised and enormously grateful. But as her self-confidence returns and she finds other friends and a sweet, gentle boyfriend, she begins to see her best friend in fresh lightand starts wondering if Alice is really a friend at all. A nail-biting thriller this isnt, and wouldnt be if the title wasnt an unfortunate giveaway. But the novel will be an easy sell as a beach book, and its not hard to picture readers sympathizing with Katherines deep-rooted need to make sense of the past and find satisfaction in the person she has become.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)