Little Threats

September 28, 2020
In 2008, Kennedy Wynn, the protagonist of this taut psychological thriller from Schultz (The Blondes), is released from prison 15 years after she pleaded guilty to the murder of her best friend, Haley Kimberson, whose body she found in the woods outside Richmond, Va., where the teenage girls were partying the night before. The state’s preponderance of evidence against Kennedy persuaded her to confess to the crime, even though she couldn’t remember what happened that night. Kennedy’s twin sister remains convinced that Kennedy really does remember, the boyfriend Kennedy and Haley once shared taunts her, and a crime show host encourages those closest to Haley to revisit the evidence. Much of Kennedy and Haley’s relationship unfolds through the writing exercises Kennedy does while in prison, leaving the impression that of all the people involved in the tragedy, Kennedy has done the most introspection, while those left on the outside remain trapped in old enmities and insecurities. The resolution, though satisfying, relies a bit much on dysfunctional family tropes, but the emotional energy of the story carries the book through. Schultz knows how to keep the reader engrossed. Agent: Ryan Harbage, Fischer-Harbage Agency.

October 1, 2020
Surreal doesn't begin to cover the day in which 16-year-old Kennedy's acid trip ended in discovering her best friend's dead body in the woods, but the subsequent murder trial made one thing perfectly clear: Haley was six feet under, and Kennedy was going to prison on a plea deal. Haley's death, the investigation, and the trial shattered both girls' families while rumors swirled in their small town of Blueheart Woods. Fifteen years later, Kennedy is released from prison and must relearn how to navigate normal life. When a true-crime documentary crew sniffing around Blueheart uncovers new evidence, Kennedy's hopes dry up for a quiet life as a parolee. Fans of Tara French, Kimberly Belle, and Orange is the New Black will fall under this book's spell. Schultz (The Blondes, 2015) begins each chapter with an excerpt from Kennedy's prison writing assignments, allowing the story to unfold in real time and in a series of flashbacks. Terse and tense, Little Threats investigates righteous anger, teenage angst, and the enormity of setting the record straight.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

October 1, 2020
A 15-year-old murder case gets new life after the convicted killer, Kennedy Wynn, is released from prison. Just a teenager when convicted, the now 30-something Kennedy is learning how to be a free woman. While she was in jail, her mother died of cancer, her twin sister, Carter, battled addiction and got sober, and her father--who, as a lawyer, was convinced the charges against Kennedy would be dropped--lived alone with his guilt. And though Kennedy is free to start over, she quickly realizes that the baggage she carries from Haley Kimberson's death is not easily discarded. Even Carter, the person Kennedy needs most, isn't convinced her twin is innocent. But Kennedy can't defend herself because she has no memory of the murder night, only of finding Haley's body: "Haley was my friend and now she was falling apart." Kennedy's release garners the attention of Dee Nash, a former detective-turned-host of the TV show Crime After Crime, who's interested in poking holes in this long-standing narrative to potentially prove Kennedy's innocence. For one, could a young girl have the strength to inflict those wounds? Kennedy, who tells much of her story via creative writing exercises done in prison, says it best: "There is always a living boy to go with a dead girl." But which boy? Berk Butler, who was with Kennedy and Haley that fateful night, but who had "more money, more lawyers" than the Wynns during the trial? Or someone else? As multiple characters search for the truth, the most compelling point of view is Kennedy's retrospective account from prison. Kennedy's voice comes across as detached, the omniscient perspective of someone who's had a lot of time to think over the details. In order to understand what led to Haley's death, Kennedy considers all the little threats that lived under the surface of her family's and friends' daily lives that could have grown into something more sinister. This detached voice bleeds into the rest of the narrative, making the slow build toward truth feel impersonal. Haley's memory haunts those who miss her most, but this metaphor takes on a more literal, paranormal form toward the end. The most effective revelation is more subtle--that everyone is more than who they are on the surface, and nothing is ever exactly as it seems. Read this not for the whodunit but for a gripping character study of an accused girl making sense of her reality.

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