Two Perfect Lies

Gr 9 Up–After she makes a huge mistake freshman year, Clara is ostracized by her classmates. When popular and well-liked Lily reaches out to her over winter break of sophomore year, it feels like a miracle. The two quickly become best friends and share everything: a passion for chemistry, a library card, and even email passwords. When Lily acts strangely one afternoon, Clara thinks she must be stressed. But the next morning when she opens a folder Lily has asked her to hold onto, Clara discovers a plan to bomb the cars of a “hit list” of students and teachers. As Clara rushes into school to alert the campus officer, she finds the police are already there. But instead of arresting Lily, they arrest her. It seems Lily is trying to frame her, but Clara can’t figure out why. She knows her past mistake means that many are already convinced of her guilt. With no one to turn to, she’ll have to investigate on her own in order to clear her name. While the book is slow to start, momentum gains and builds suspense as the stakes get ever higher. The ending seems largely inevitable, so even though there is a small twist, it feels somewhat unsatisfying. Clara is at times both frustratingly naive and fiercely independent, much to her own detriment. The secondary characters are a little flat, but a slow-burn romance with Henry is a delight. Henry is Haitian American; all other characters default to white.