GIRL, UNFRAMED

Narrator Alexandra Allwine maximizes the tension in this YA page-turner. Sydney Reilly is planning to spend her sixteenth summer in a mansion in San Francisco with Lila Shore, her movie-star mother. But her heavenly summer soon turns to hell, and Allwine's depiction makes that clear as Lila's tones range from helplessness to fury, with notes of egotism beneath both. Allwine presents Syd's boyfriend, Jake, with disturbing tones of coarseness and bullying. Allwine emphasizes Syd's strong internal voice, her powers of wonder, her intellect, her struggles with sexual awakening, and her determination to become "full in the world, and in my body and in my own self." Each chapter begins with a courtroom exhibit that adds to the driving plot. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2020]