American Girls

Starred review from March 28, 2016
Tired of being the “leftover” of her parents’ divorce and eager to disappear after a prank goes too far, 15-year-old Anna uses her stepmother’s credit card to buy a ticket to Los Angeles, where her sister Delia, a struggling actress, lives. Surrounded by Hollywood’s beautiful and morally corrupt, Anna navigates interactions with Delia’s ex-boyfriend, Roger, who is shooting a movie about L.A. murders, and her sister’s current love interest, a writer on a kids’ show, as well as her own blossoming romance with a teen actor. Forced to pay back the money she stole for her flight, Anna takes a job researching the Manson girls for Roger. Her immersion into the Manson murders leads to paranoia when it appears that Delia is being stalked. Debut author Umminger’s humor is biting (“My family was clearly the place where optimism went to die”), yet it reveals richly complicated relationships among mothers, daughters, and sisters. Umminger crafts a Los Angeles both glittering and soulless, leading to Anna’s realization that she may have more in common with the Manson girls than she thought, but it’s the choices she makes that set her apart
. Ages 13–up. Agent: Neeti Madan, Sterling Lord Literistic.

Narrator Jennifer Grace embodies the cynicism of 15-year-old Anna, who certainly has a right to her 'tude. Her mother and stepmother are raising a new baby, and Anna feels invisible, at best. So she "borrows" a credit card, flies to Los Angeles, and surprises her half-sister, Delia. As Anna turns a jaded eye on the glamorous Hollywood lifestyle, Grace adds wry humor, but she also expresses Anna's sensitive, fearful side as she attempts to understand the girls who committed the Manson murders. As those young women become more real to her, Anna sees her similarities to them, acknowledges brutalities in her own life, and develops a more mature view. Grace does a magnificent job of balancing horror and humor in this gripping coming-of-age debut. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award � AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine