Jess is excited about seeing Tyler at school again. They’ve been best friends since they were young but lately that’s changed. Jess has seen a new Tyler lately and she’s intrigued. Somehow the boy who used to spend hours with her in her tree house is suddenly… more.

It’s 1998 and the rest of life for Jess in her tiny town called Swickley is listening and loving Alanis Morrisette, hanging out with her besties and spending time with her sister Sara. Their parents are a little over protective now, since Sara’s diagnosis of a rare disease that is now keeping her bed bound at home.

One day while with her friends, something slim, glass and metal falls out of a backpack. Jess picks it up and while passing it back to her friend, notices a small apple picture on it. When she asks about it, her friend waves off her interest.

Things with Tyler step up a notch, and she knows he’s interested in more than friendship. She has spent hours talking about him and everything in her life with Sara and her friends, feeling comfortable laying her soul bare.

Jess hasn’t thought much about the thing with the apple picture on it, and her friend’s casualness about it afterwards, but then other things that seem to Jess as a little… off. She begins to notice her friends swapping strange glances and they stop talking when Jess approaches. Even her dog Fuller is acting strangely, growling and hiding under furniture.

Sara is suddenly whisked to hospital. She is unconscious and the doctors are worried, making her family even more so. They spend hours at Sara’s bedside, willing her to wake up. Just when Jess thinks her family is derailing, she learns something about Tyler.

NOTHING could have prepared Jess for the truth, and now she must decide whether to carry on her life in Swickley, or leave EVERYTHING she knows behind.

This is not the Jess Show begins like any other contemporary novel where a 17 yr old girl is crushing on her best friend, her friends are inviting her to parties and she’s enjoying music and pop culture (It’s 1998).

I was as shocked as Jess to learnt the truth about her life and everyone in it, my mind spinning with all that entailed.

Part historical, semi thriller, part future and fugitive, this story has a great concept I haven’t encountered before. 

Author – Anna Carey

Age – 13+

(2021, Penguin Random House, Lies, Social Media, Popularity, Ratings, Greed, Truth, New York, Family, Reality, Romance, School, Shock reveal)