Little Blue Lies

January 1, 2014
A lovelorn teen messes with the mob in order to save his blue-collar girlfriend in this unusual comedy of social class. Upper-class Oliver is devastated when his beloved Junie Blue breaks off their relationship after high school graduation. But that doesn't stop him from trying to intervene when he hears that Junie may be in possession of a winning lottery ticket that is being sought by the local mob boss. Since their relationship was built on the outrageous lies they used to tell each other, Oliver can't figure out if Junie is telling the truth about not having the ticket. So he uses his family's wealth and power to hatch a plan to take the mob heat off Junie and, he hopes, win her back in the process. But self-sufficient Junie has plans of her own, and Oliver discovers that she's not the only one who's been lying to him. Though secondary characters that aren't integral to the story sometimes sidetrack the plot, Lynch's dialogue is consistently funny and sharp. Inventive descriptions--"The sun is just starting to work an orange cigarette burn through the gray fabric of the clouds"--set off the long riffs of humorous banter nicely. A worthwhile romp, if not quite a jackpot. (Fiction. 12 & up)

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March 1, 2014

Gr 10 Up-Oliver and Junie's relationship thrives on lies. Together they are glib, sarcastic, and rarely serious, but they're in love. That is, they used to be, because Junie broke up with Oliver and now she's gone, possibly on the run from the local mob boss, the One Who Knows. Still desperately in love with her, Oliver wants to find and protect Junie, but how can he help someone who doesn't want to be found? This quirky novel from the Printz Honor-winning Lynch is charmingly clever and witty. Being wanted by the mob is not necessarily a light and fun premise for a novel, but Lynch uses this alarming situation to present a story about self-awareness and sacrifice. As a slightly unreliable narrator, Oliver is fine company. Although he is somewhat oblivious to his socioeconomic privilege and emotionally clueless, readers will root for him because of his devotion to saving Junie. She manages to evade him for almost half of the novel, but when they finally meet again, their biggest hurdle turns out not be the mob, but their opposing visions of the future. Lynch's staccato and ironic style is highly readable. Readers who aren't sure what they want to do with their life after high school will find that this book's light and honest approach to figuring it out rings true.-Joy Piedmont, LREI, New York City

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2014
Grades 8-11 Oliver, 18, has graduated, but his mind has not moved on from Junie Blue. Too bad, since she's just dumped him for reasons he's only beginning to fathom. Local organized-crime boss One Who Knows (aka Juan Junose get it?) claims all winning lottery tickets to keep his cash influx on the up-and-up, and isn't it possible that Junie has scored such a ticket but doesn't feel like sharing? From Inexcusable (2005) to Hothouse (2010) to Kill Switch (2012), the prolific Lynch is a reliable writer, unafraid to venture forth into new genres and tones, though with this odd little ditty, he wanders a bridge too far. The plot is minuscule; what we are to care about are the characters and their constant verbal interplay. Yet each of them exists in an unreal world where everyone trades the same type of minor-key jazz-bop drollnessan attempt at humor that never quite catches on and instead feels like wandering affectations in search of a conductor. Lynch's rep should draw readers, though they'll find greater satisfaction in previous works.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)