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  • Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls by Lynn Weingarten
  • Kate Quealy-Gainer
Weingarten, Lynn Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls. Simon Pulse, 2015 325p
Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-4814-1853-9 $17.99
E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-4814-1859-1 $10.99 R* Gr. 9-12

Despite not having talked to Delia in over a year, June is devastated when she hears that her former best friend has committed suicide. She’s also suspicious, though: there’s no way that Delia set herself aflame in her stepfather’s shed, since fire was the one thing that scared the normally fearless and fierce Delia. She joins Delia’s most recent boyfriend, Jeremiah, in a search for clues to what they believe is Delia’s murder. Their investigation uncovers some of Delia’s seedier activities over the last year, but ultimately, June’s hunt for answers points toward the one person she thought she could trust the most. The book earns its dramatic title, both in the plot’s hairpin twists and the portrait of an intimately toxic relationship between two desperate girls, illuminated through flashbacks that add dimension to both characters. Delia seems at first to be a typical manic pixie dream girl, but she is far more clever and manipulative than June gives her credit for. June’s also oblivious to her own malleability when it comes to Delia—she is comfortably ensconced in Delia’s shadow when they are friends; unmoored but relieved in their separation; and guiltily determined in the aftermath of Delia’s death, but never once does she realize that Delia is always the motivation behind her behavior. Weingarten is acutely aware of pacing—each plot turn is followed by a reprieve that allows readers to settle into a new theory about Delia’s fate only to have their assumptions upended once again. A taut, sophisticated thriller, this will find an audience with teens who appreciate labyrinthine plots and ambiguous endings.

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