The Truth about Alice by Jennifer Mathieu (review)

The small town of Healy, Texas, is left reeling when its high-school star quarterback is killed in a car crash. Everyone’s looking for someone to blame, and no one wants to admit that it could have been the four beers that football god Brandon Fitzsimmons downed before he got behind the wheel, so their sights land on Alice Franklin. Alice supposedly slept with both Brandon and some college guy last year at a party and was sexting with Brandon the night he died—according to Brandon’s best friend Josh, who was riding with Brandon in the car. Key observers—but, interestingly, not the participants, Brandon and Alice—take turns narrating, revealing a truth that is far less salacious but a bit more complicated than the rumors purport. First, there’s queen bee Elaine O’Dea, hostess of the infamous party and fierce supporter of the slut-shaming campaign that ensues post-party; Kelsie Sanders, Alice’s former best friend, is desperate to hang onto to her recently gained popularity and starts a “Slut Stall” in the girl’s bathroom, where everyone details Alice’s supposed misdeeds in Sharpie. Josh, meanwhile, is grappling with grief and guilt, and Kurt Morelli, the nerdy outsider, seems to be the only person left in town willing to give Alice the time of day. Keenly observed internal monologues flesh out characters that initially seem little more than small-town stereotypes, and Mathieu manages to offer an explanation for several of the characters’ more reprehensible behaviors without exonerating them. Alice voices the final chapter, leaving readers with a hard-earned nugget of wisdom that “if you give people enough time, eventually they’ll do the most heartbreaking stuff in the world.” Swift pace and compact size may entice reluctant readers as well as those interested in a juicy yet thoughtful take on human dynamics.