Be True to Me by Adele Griffin; Review

Be True to Me

by Adele Griffin

Algonquin Young Readers 352 pp.

With two opposing points of view, two girls fight over the same new boy in town, Gil Burke. Jean, a privileged girl who spent her childhood summers vacationing on Fire Island, met Gil at a home party in New York. After showing him around the city, she realized that feelings for Gil had blossomed, and he seemed to return those feelings. However, Fitz, a hardworking girl from outside the privileged gates of Sunken Haven, fell for Gil after he arrived on the Island. Gil, a handsome boy from down south with ties to one of the most powerful families in Sunken Haven, noticed both girls and seemed to send the same signal to both girls.

Throughout the book the girls battled for Gil’s attention, whether it was secret meetings on the roof or booking rooms in a motel. The tension between the girls was undeniable. The girls already had a rocky history, but as a reader we wouldn’t have assumed their history alone would have made them enemies. Fighting over a boy gave the girls enough reason though, and gave us readers something new and interesting to watch. By the end of the book Jean is given a huge reality check about being truthful. The book ends with Jean returning home because of her reality check, but I would have liked to have more of a reflection from Jean about the major event that just occurred. Jean learns that lying to get what you want can have major, unforeseeable consequences. A consequence like this seems unheard of among teenagers like this, and the way the author lead up to the event made it even more surprising. Adele Griffin took an event far beyond these teenagers years, and slipped it right into their lives in an inconspicuous manner.

Be True To Me by Adele Griffin was released June 13, 2017. This is an ARC review.