The Notorious Pagan Jones

April 6, 2015
Fallen starlet Pagan Jones has a chance at redemption when a mysterious film studio flack springs her from reform school with another shot at stardom. The film shoot lands 17-year-old Pagan—a struggling alcoholic who killed her father and sister in a drunk-driving wreck after her mother committed suicide—in Berlin, the city of her mother’s birth, where she seeks clues to her past while untangling a nefarious political plot unfolding in troubled 1960s Germany. Berry’s (the Otherkin series) noirish writing blends the blinding spotlight of Hollywood, the sexy world of espionage, and a smattering of real-life events and figures to create a fast-paced spy thriller. Chapter titles blare like the headlines of inky tabloids (“Killer Starlet Refuses to Shack Up with Guardian”), and Pagan’s trousseau is peppered with designer labels such as Chanel, evoking a bygone era of glamour and sophistication. Pagan is realistically flawed and complex (“Who was she tonight? Actress or drunk? A movie star, or a villain?”), using her skills on the stage to manipulate men, gain state secrets, and make a daring escape from the divided city. Ages 14–up. Agent: Tamar Rydzinski, Laura Dail Literary Agency.

March 15, 2015
In 1961, a troubled but immensely clever starlet is roped into dangerous Cold War intrigue. Sixteen-year-old Pagan, an up-and-coming actress in 1950s and '60s Hollywood, lost everything when she killed her father and baby sister with a drunken swerve of her Corvette. Now she's just another inmate at the Lighthouse Reformatory for Wayward Girls, struggling with sobriety and self-loathing. Salvation comes from an unlikely source: her old studio sends a dashing young man to fetch her from jail. Devin Black is darkly handsome, irritatingly attentive, and an obvious liar. Why would he be so desperate to drag a jailbird actress off to West Berlin? How did he get so powerful, able to bend studio executives and judges to his will? In a divided Berlin, Pagan runs the risk of being swamped by geopolitical danger from Communist East Germans-and the ongoing temptation of alcohol. Her prodigious competence at everything she attempts, from acting to espionage, would make her unbelievable if Berry did not temper it so well with her struggles with addiction. Loving descriptions of early-'60s fashion and lustfully purple descriptions of Devin (with eyes like "shards of stained glass shaded from indigo to azure" or "turbulent seas on a blustery night") don't distract from the well-paced historical thriller. Scary in all the right places, with a strong setup for the sequel. (Suspense. 13-15)

June 1, 2015

Gr 9 Up-Intertwined with historical events surrounding the formation of the Berlin Wall in 1961, this novel traces the recovery of former film sweetheart Pagan Jones. After Pagan drunkenly kills her family in a car accident, she is sentenced to juvenile detention-a rather light sentence compared to the tortuous guilt weighing on her. When the opportunity to star in a Berlin-based film presents itself, Pagan takes the chance and gets out of juvie borne on the arm of her court-appointed guardian, Devin Black. What the teen starlet slowly realizes is that her part in this film is merely superficial; her real objective is to help Devin infiltrate the East German government-the role of a lifetime. Danger, dancing, and daring capers fill the pages of Pagan's adventure and her climb back to stardom. Fans of Elizabeth Wein's Code Name Verity (Disney-Hyperion, 2012) and Ruta Sepetys's Between Shades of Gray (Philomel, 2011) will not be disappointed with the author's latest. VERDICT Fast-paced and furious, this work will be a certain hit with those who love historical fiction, Hollywood, and stories of redemption.-Amanda C. Buschmann, Atascocita Middle School, Humble, TX

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2015
Grades 10-1 Nineteen sixties American movie starlet Pagan Jones was on top of the world until she turned hers upside down, crashing her Corvette while drunk and killing her family. She is committed to a reformatory, exchanging her film career for a lifetime of guilt. But her stint is cut short when she is unexpectedly offered a too-good-to-be-true role in a hot new movie. She suspiciously accepts, and, closely watched by her (handsome) new guardian, the unreadable Devin Black, off she goes to West Berlin. But a wall is being built in Germany, and as Pagan wrestles with her inner demons, she becomes aware of the intrigue surrounding this movie set and the part she is meant to play. Pagan Jones, though, is nobody's pawn. This is a well-plotted balance of Hollywood glitter and international political conspiracies during the Cold War, and the historical backdrop is meticulously set. Pagan is a smart, charismatic heroine given depth by her struggles with alcoholism. Her budding romance with Devin doesn't sizzle so much as simmer, but there's plenty of room for development in further volumes. A strong series start.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)