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Reviewed by:
  • This Is Not a Love Letter by Kim Purcell
  • Deborah Stevenson
Purcell, Kim This Is Not a Love Letter. Hyperion,
2018 [368p] ISBN 978-1-4847-9834-8 $17.99
Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 9-12

Jessie is shocked when her boyfriend, Chris, goes missing. The police think he's a runaway, but Jessie is worried that the guys who jumped Chris in a racially motivated attack (Chris is one of the only black guys in their small Washington town) came back for more. As the hours and then the days roll on, Jessie aids in the search and explores every possibility she can think of, even suicide, as the fear and anguish grows. Purcell sets this up for maximum taut anxiety, with hints and reveals about Chris and other cast members slipping out over time and ramping up in their significance. Jessie narrates the proceedings directly to Chris, intercutting the current story with a recap of their romance and its obstacles (they were on a week's break from each other when he went missing), in sections crisply headed with date and time. Even the minor figures are well drawn in a few strokes and Jessie is an absorbing character, defensive, pugnacious, stuck by life circumstances (a mother with mental and physical illness); her gradual trust in sweet Chris is utterly credible. The book puts readers in the middle of the events as they unfold, as Jessie tries to piece together what happened, and as the passage of time increasingly suggests that all possible answers are heartbreaking. This is an engrossing, tense tale about love and loss and survival. DS [End Page 218]

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