Hawthorn wasn’t trying to insert herself into a missing person’s investigation. Or maybe she was. But that’s only because Lizzie Lovett’s disappearance is the one fascinating mystery their sleepy town has ever had. Bad things don’t happen to popular girls like Lizzie Lovett, and Hawthorn is convinced she’ll turn up at any moment-which means the time for speculation is now.
So Hawthorn comes up with her own theory for Lizzie’s disappearance. A theory way too absurd to take seriously…at first. The more Hawthorn talks, the more she believes. And what better way to collect evidence than to immerse herself in Lizzie’s life? Like getting a job at the diner where Lizzie worked and hanging out with Lizzie’s boyfriend. After all, it’s not as if he killed her-or did he?
Told with a unique voice that is both hilarious and heart-wrenching, Hawthorn’s quest for proof may uncover the greatest truth is within herself.
RELEASED JANUARY 3, 2017
KEEP READING FOR MORE INFO ABOUT THE BOOK
AND TO READ LORNA’S REVIEW!
About the Book!
The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett
by Chelsea Sedoti
Series
n/a; standalone
Genre
Young Adult
Romantic Comedy
Publisher
Sourcebooks Fire
Publication Date
January 3, 2017
Lorna’s Review
The first thing that drew me to request this book from Net Galley was the unique cover. Rarely do I choose a book just based on the cover, so I will say that the blurb also drew me in as well. This was YA, bordering at times on New Adult. It was also a pretty different read for me, to say the least.
Lizzie Lovett may be the name of the book, but the heroine here is high school senior, Hawthorn. Not only is her name not typical, but her whole life is pretty different. She’s a sister to a former high school football star, Rush, and daughter of a partially reformed hippie mother. She’s probably the least popular girl in school and she has the most active imagination I have ever read about. The simplest act by another person can bring on all sorts of paranormal reasons for the act in her mind. She not only thinks the reason, but she blows it up out of proportion and fleshes it out until it’s momentarily true in her mind. Until it gets shot down. When local popular girl, Lizzie goes missing, it really doesn’t register as being that bad for awhile. That is, until Hawthorn decides she knows what happened to Lizzie, and to say it isn’t a normal reason is an understatement of epic proportions. She makes the mistake of mentioning the reason to someone and the next thing she knows everyone in school is yet again making fun of her. She starts to obsess about Lizzie. She even goes and gets a job at the restaurant where Lizzie works. And then befriends, Lizzie’s boyfriend, Enzo, and pulls him into her thought processes of reasons why Lizzie disappeared.
The mystery of what happened to Lizzie is throughout the book. Since Enzo was camping with Lizzie the night she disappeared, he is under all kinds of scrutiny and speculation. But Hawthorn believes his story of waking up and her being gone in the morning. Hawthorn and Enzo develop a friendship of sorts and try to figure out what happened to Lizzie. Maybe I should mention that Hawthorn detests Lizzie due to an incident years before, so it’s strange that Hawthorn cares that much.
Due to spoilers, I don’t want to tell any more of the actual story. It’s an odyssey of sorts for Hawthorn and even Enzo at some points. It’s not only Lizzie’s story, it’s also a sort of coming of age story for Hawthorn. Since she’s been so unpopular, she hasn’t had a chance to do all the things most young girls experience-at a younger age than she is now. She does a good job of pretending not to care, but she does, of course. I enjoyed her insights into life as an ostracized young girl, and her relationship with Enzo, at times. Although that was pretty flawed from the outset. While I mostly enjoyed her character, at times, she was well…kind of strange,to say the least. Having said that, she does a lot of growing in this story, so that redeemed her for me.
Not a typical YA book by any means, I would still recommend it to YA readers 16 plus due to sexual situations or thoughts. Nothing really explicit, but still there. I think this is a book you either really like, or really not like(not hate). Not much in between. I personally am glad I read it.
The review copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.
About Chelsea Sedoti
Chelsea Sedoti fell in love with writing at a young age after discovering that making up stories was more fun than doing her school work (her teachers didn’t always appreciate this.) In an effort to avoid getting a “real” job, Chelsea explored careers as a balloon twister, filmmaker, and paranormal investigator. Eventually she realized that her true passion is writing about flawed teenagers who are also afraid of growing up. When she’s not at the computer, Chelsea spends her time exploring abandoned buildings, eating junk food at roadside diners, and trying to befriend every animal in the world. She lives in Las Vegas, Nevada where she avoids casinos, but loves roaming the Mojave Desert.
Chelsea’s Links
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This sounds like a very interesting read, Lorna. I can see where it would be a story that readers either like or don’t since Hawthorn seems like a character that might be hard to take. I’m happy she does some growing over the course of the story – growth is an element I enjoy in a story. I almost want to read it just to understand the “why”…why does Hawthorn care? Anyway, great review. 🙂
Oh, she definitely shows growth by the end. She was an interesting character and it kept me reading. At times, I got a bit flustered with some of her actions, but still think in the end it was very readable and well written 🙂
Good to see there was a lot of character growth in Hawthorn throughout the story. Sounds like she was troubled at times. I’d like to meet Enzo myself… 😉