Review + Giveaway: And Then I Found Out the Truth by Jennifer Sturman

Sequel to And Then Everything Unraveled


Tags: YA, mystery, eco-conspiracy

Summary

After several death-defying encounters in her search for the truth behind her mother’s disappearance, Delia Truesdale has a pretty good idea who might be behind the illegal Antarctica oil drilling plans. The problem is, she thinks it might be the father of her crush, golden boy Quinn. Along with her eccentric aunt Charley, a private investigator, her computer genius friend, and a few other quirky characters, Delia races to stop the bigwigs behind the conspiracy and to bring her mother home safe and sound.

Review

AND THEN I FOUND OUT THE TRUTH is a satisfying conclusion to the wonderfully colorful mystery that began in AND THEN EVERYTHING UNRAVELED. While the plot may seem a little shaky and uneven at times, the character development is even stronger.

I had forgotten how funny Jennifer Sturman is in her first YA novel, but AND THEN I FOUND OUT THE TRUTH brought it all back for me. Delia narrates with an appreciable wryness that is 100% funny and 100% heartfelt. There is an eclectic cast of characters, but they never felt like stereotypes to me, the way some other stories with quirky characters and over-the-top humor might. You might not find these characters in real life, but they work exceedingly well in fiction for our entertainment.

In particular, I want to know how much more developed Quinn, Delia’s love interest, was in this sequel. My one minor issue with the first book was the flatness of his character, but in this book Quinn is a much more well-rounded character, with strengths, gallantry, problems, and vulnerabilities.

The plot of AND THEN I FOUND OUT THE TRUTH fell a little short in my opinion, though that may have been because my expectations were high for the sequel. A lot of the detective strategies from the first book came back here, and Delia was, I felt, unfortunately restricted in her sleuthing in a lot of ways that were frustrating. The ending was more Spy Kids-esque than Minority Report-worthy, which is charming in its happiness but otherwise rather simplistic.

Even so, any weaknesses this book might have did not detract from my immense enjoyment. Jennifer Sturman does a great job of writing memorable three-dimensional characters into a complicated plot. I hope she writes more YA in the future!

Similar Authors
Carolyn Mackler (Tangled)
Lauren Mechling (Dream Life)

Writing: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Plot: 3/5

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5


Cover discussion: 4 out of 5 - Personally, I like its colors, its whimsicality. I like how you don't really know what to expect with this book. Only that it's going to be fun and a little surreal.

Scholastic / July 1, 2010 / Hardcover / 272pp. / $16.99

Received for review from TK Public Relations.

Giveaway Info

 

TK Public Relations was gracious enough to offer a paperback of the first book in this series, And Then Everything Unraveled, along with a hardback of And Then I Found Out the Truth, to one lucky winner! To enter, fill out the form below, making sure to answer the entry question relevantly. US only, and ends Friday, July 23, 2010. Good luck!

Waiting on Wednesday (54)

And Then I Found Out the Truth by Jennifer Sturman

**WARNING: potential spoilers regarding Book 1, And Then Everything Unraveled**

Delia Truesdale is still searching for the truth about her mother, who is in hiding somewhere in South America. But for now, Delia has to make do with her mystery-solving in New York City, alongside her Aunt Charley (a downtown hipster), her Aunt Patience (an uptown ice queen), a detective with a questionable taste in neckties, an eccentric psychic, her brainiac friend, and Quinn, the wealthy, gorgeous boy who--gasp!-- seems to return Delia's affections. Too bad Quinn's shady CEO dad may be involved in the scheme Delia is trying to crack. And a trip to South America may be in order after all...

Last summer, a little-known book about a disappearance and an environmental conspiracy and living in NYC stole my heart, even more so when the author, Jennifer Sturman, turned out to be supremely nice and accommodating in agreeing to an interview and helping me host a giveaway. Since reading And Then Everything Unraveled, I have been impatiently waiting for its sequel to arrive. I want to know what happens with Delia's mom! I want to know more about the conspiracy! I want Delia to have more slightly awkward encounters with her aunts and her classmates and her crush. I want her to do more amateur sleuthing! (Can you simply taste my excitement?)

Plus, isn't the cover so pretty? Compare it alongside the cover for And Then Everything Unraveled, which threw me off at first, but which I now love alongside the cover for its sequel.

And Then I Found Out the Truth will be published in hardcover by Point, a division of Scholastic, on July 1, 2010.

Interview + GIVEAWAY: Jennifer Sturman!

And Then Everything Unraveled by Jennifer Sturman is a hugely enjoyable yet not well enough known novel that came out recently. I fell in love with it when I read and reviewed it last month. I had the chance to talk to Jennifer when she asked if she could quote me on her website (how could I say no?!), and she agreed to an interview! I hope you enjoy, and read on for more exciting news and a chance to read this fantastic book!

1. Where did the idea for And Then Everything Unraveled come from?

I’d been rereading one of my favorite books of all time, Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis, which is about an orphaned boy growing up with his madcap aunt in New York City. Auntie Mame was first published in 1955, and I started thinking about how that same basic premise – orphaned kid, crazy aunt – might play out today. Of course, once I started playing with the concept, the kid became a sixteen-year-old girl who might or might not be an orphan, and the crazy aunt became more of a downtown free spirit, and I threw in another aunt who was equally crazy but in an uptight Upper East Side sort of way, and then I had to add in some mystery, and also some romance – and eventually I ended up with a story….

2. Your characters' names are all quite unusual. How did you go about picking the "right" name for each character?

The funny thing is that a bunch of the characters’ names changed in the rewrites. Delia was always Delia – there was something sunny and Californian about it that would contrast nicely with her new life in Manhattan. The three sisters, though, were originally named after the three Furies in Greek mythology: Tisiphone, Alecto, and Megaera. This was because of a minor subplot that went away after the first draft, at which point there was no reason to burden the characters with such terrible names! But by then, T.K. was already very much a T.K., so I needed a “T” for her, and given what her parents were like, I knew it would have to be stuffy and old-fashioned, so I came up with Temperance.

Meanwhile, Charley was originally going to be called Tanner (which was her middle name initially, in homage to Patrick Dennis, whose real name was Everett Tanner), but it reminded everyone of the TV show Full House, and while I still wanted her to have an unconventional name, I also wanted it to be consistent with her sisters’ names, so I struck on the Charity/Charley combination. Which left Patience, and mostly I just wanted her to have a nickname that she’d hate, and I knew she’d hate being called Patty, so I worked backward from there to Patience.

3. And Then Everything Unraveled - quite an unusual, though eye-catching and memorable, title! How did it come about?

Pretty much by accident! The working title was The Fourth Fury, because Delia’s mother and aunts were supposed to be named after the three Furies, which would have made her the fourth. Once I did away with that, though, the title no longer made any sense. So then I was thinking about how Delia’s entire life comes apart at the seams while she’s also trying to solve the mystery of T.K.’s disappearance, which led me to words like “undone” and “puzzle” and “knot.” “Unraveled” somehow got on the list, and once it did, it felt right.

4. What events or books in your childhood and teen years inspired you to write?

This is probably a boring answer, but there was never a specific trigger to wanting to write – I just always knew I would, because I loved reading so much.

5. Will you share with us the story behind the cover of And Then Everything Unraveled?

I absolutely love the cover, but I can’t take any credit for it. Authors tend not to have much say when it comes to cover art, which in my case is good as I have no aesthetic sense. Mostly I lucked out, because the team at Scholastic did such a fabulous job with it.

6. What's the best writing advice you've ever received?

Another boring answer, probably, but still the best advice I’ve gotten: write.

7. How did you react when you read Meg Cabot's blurb for your book?

I’m a huge fan of Meg’s, so I was thrilled!

8. What are you reading right now?

I tend to have several books going at once, and it’s usually a fairly eclectic mix of genres as well as books I’m reading for the first time and ones I’m rereading. Here’s what’s currently on my nightstand:

• This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Careless in Red by Elizabeth George
• Kitty, Kitty by Michele Jaffe
• The Eight by Katherine Neville
• Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

9. Fun random question: what would the perfect meal for you consist of?

It’s very hot in New York, so I’d have to go with peaches and blueberries, or tomatoes and fresh mozzarella, or just about anything with artichokes. But in February it would be cheeseburgers or chili or something much more carnivorous.

10. Anything you'd like to add for readers?

Apparently there’s been a bit of confusion about whether Unraveled has a sequel – but it does! And Then I Found Out the Truth will be out next year, and I hope you’ll check it out when it hits the shelves.

Thank you for answering my questions, Jennifer!

-

Interest piqued yet for this fantastic book? Need another nudge? Check out Meg Cabot's: not only did she blurb Jennifer's book, she also wrote a blog entry recommending this book to all her readers, AND she linked to my review. (Thanks, Khy, for letting me know about it!) How's that for a little brush with fame for this little ole blog?!

The Giveaway:

Now that you've learned a little more about Jennifer and her latest book, here's an opportunity for you to win your own copy! Jennifer has very graciously provided a copy of And Then Everything Unraveled to send anywhere in the world--and to thank her, and to share my love, I am going to match that! So now you have TWO chances to win this fantastic book!

To enter, answer the following question: What are you reading right now?

For additional entries:

+2 if you're already following my blog, and let me know
+1 if you're a new follower, and let me know
+1 if you follow me on Twitter (@stephxsu)
+1 for each place you mention this giveaway (your blog, sidebar, Twitter, Facebook, etc...) and let me know

Ends: Thursday, August 20, 2009

Open: WORLDWIDE! So come and enter!

Please remember to leave your email address so I can contact you if you are a winner. Don't forget to check out Jennifer's website for more info if you're interested. Good luck!

Review: And Then Everything Unraveled by Jennifer Sturman

Publication date: July 1, 2009 (Scholastic)

Tags: middle grade, YA, mystery, disappearance, conspiracy

Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary

Delia knows that her mother, the unflappable, always together, perfectly organized T.K. Truesdale, would not disappear off the face of the earth without previous notice. Which is why she’s suspicious when news comes of her mother’s death on an Antarctic environmental protection expedition and Delia is shipped off to NYC to live with her two aunts.

In between making friends, dealing with a newfound crush, and trying to fit in at her prestigious private high school, Delia investigates her mother’s supposed death on the side and discovers what she already believed: her mother is not dead. There is a reason she is hiding out, but the more Delia finds out, the more sinister everything sounds, and the more danger that she and everyone she cares about might be in.

Review

Wow! How do I even begin to describe AND THEN EVERYTHING UNRAVELED, which defies categorization? It’s a mystery-suspense story wrapped around a typical girl-coming-of-age tale, and as a result it is so much more.

Delia is a darling, an unassuming high school girl with a lot of bad luck but an equal amount of smarts on her hand. In straightforward, attention-grabbing prose she tells us how the transition from California to NYC is, how living with her crazy aunts after her by-the-book mom is, and how important it is to her that she get to the bottom of this mystery with her mom. The plot is definitely the best thing about this book, for the hint of a mysterious and dangerous conspiracy in an otherwise normal YA novel is unusual, and thus delightful.

Besides for Delia, most of the other characters are interesting as well. Her aunts Charley and Patty are complete opposites of one another, and yet neither of them feel clichéd or unrealistic in their differences. Jennifer Sturman has the crazy-awesome ability to make even the most minor of characters have personality. The only character that falls slightly short in my opinion would be Quinn, Delia’s love interest, who’s gallant and noble and infuriating but still a little fuzzy in my head.

However, since the ending of this book clearly promises a sequel or two, I am confident that I will only fall more and more in love with Delia’s world. AND THEN EVERYTHING UNRAVELED is a stellar start to what promises to be an exciting, heartwarming, AND nail-biting series. Can it really get better than that?

Similar Authors

Meg Cabot

Kelley Armstrong (Darkest Powers series)

Writing: 4/5

Characters: 4/5

Plot: 4/5

Want more? Yes, please. :)

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

Cover discussion: 3.5 out of 5 - It's...unusual! Not what come to mind first when I think back on the story (which I can't stop doing, it was that good). It looks more than a bit girlish, which is unfortunate, but that might actually encourage certain readers to pick it up, which would be fantastic.

Thank you, Sheila Marie, for giving me the honor of reviewing this great book!