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Jackie Lea Sommers lives and writes in Minnesota, where the people are nice and the o's are long. Like West, Jackie grew up in a small town with few secrets, but now she makes her home in the Twin Cities, where she lives more anonymously with all her book boyfriends. She is the 2013 winner of the Katherine Paterson Prize for Young Adult Writing. Truest is her first novel.
Truest
eBook
$4.99
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ISBN-13:
9780062348272
- Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
- Publication date: 09/01/2015
- Sold by: HARPERCOLLINS
- Format: eBook
- Pages: 384
- Sales rank: 338,561
- File size: 741 KB
- Age Range: 13 - 17 Years
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A breathtaking debut brings us the unforgettable story of a small-town love, big dreams, and family drama.
Silas Hart has seriously shaken up Westlin Beck's small-town life. Brand-new to town, Silas is different from the guys in Green Lake. He's curious, poetic, philosophical, maddening—and really, really cute. But Silas has a sister—and she has a secret. And West has a boyfriend. And life in Green Lake is about to change forever.
Truest is a stunning, addictive debut. Romantic, fun, tender, and satisfying, it asks as many questions as it answers. Perfect for fans of The Fault in Our Stars and Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn't Have).
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Publishers Weekly
07/06/2015Sommers debuts with a summer romance that gives questions of faith a complex, satisfying treatment. Seventeen-year-old West Beck is a pastor’s daughter in small-town Minnesota, and she has been dating the school football star for years. Then the beautiful Hart twins, Silas and Laurel, enter West’s life. Suddenly, she is pulled into a flirtatious relationship with Silas and a friendship with Laurel, who has a rare psychological condition, solipsism syndrome, which causes her to doubt reality entirely. As the romantic connection between West and Silas becomes clearer to them both, they puzzle through their relationships with God, the meaning of life, and the complicated role West’s father plays as a town pastor who is rarely there for his own family. For these two thoughtful teens, faith isn’t an obstacle for their explorations of love (and sex), and although the events of the last third of this novel verge on overdramatic, in contrast to the deep philosophical conversations and carefully constructed relationships that precede them, Sommers’s prose and her instincts for character shine. Ages 13–up. Agent: Steven Chudney, Chudney Agency. (Sept.)
VOYA, October 2015 (Vol. 38, No. 4) - Dawn Talbott
Being a seventeen-year-old in small town Minnesota is hard enough, but with Westlin Beck’s father being a pastor, it is even tougher. Even worse, this summer her boyfriend is working long days on his father’s farm, and her best friend is away working at a summer camp. When the Hart family moves into town from Alaska, West reluctantly begins spending time with Silas and Laurel, twins with a difficult story of their own. Silas is much different than the boys West grew up with—he is a poet, a puzzle, and completely driving West crazy. Laurel is mysterious, and West senses there is a hidden secret about her. Together, the pair has flipped West’s world completely. The character development in this selection is one of its strongest features. Readers bond wholeheartedly with West, feeling her joys and pains completely. Silas and Laurel are well developed, too. As the relationships among the three friends grow, readers are wonderfully carried along with them. The storyline has a few moments of predictability, but overall is strong, full of great moments that tug at the heart. The romance aspect is not overwhelming, but just enough to move the story along. There are great philosophical questions raised as well that will help drive the reader to the end of the book. A few choice words, which are in no way gratuitously thrown in, and some mature content gear Truest towards audiences in older grades. Overall, it is a beautifully written selection. Reviewer: Dawn Talbott; Ages 12 to Adult.School Library Journal
06/01/2015Gr 10 Up—A romantic debut exploring the devastating effects of mental illness on all members of the family. When Silas Hart sees Westlin Beck for the first time, it's love at first sight for him. And West? She's got a lot on her mind: her pastor father's near-constant absence from home, her long-time boyfriend, another good friend's blindness. As her friendship with Silas develops, West realizes his sister Laurel's mental illness hangs over the family like a cloud—and when tragedy strikes, leaving both Silas and West racked with guilt, it seems their romance will implode under the strain. Can they figure out a way to remain each other's "truest" love? This is a standard romance that attempts to add emotional weight with the inclusion of an obscure mental illness. However, it takes forever for West to come to the obvious conclusion that she needs to dump boyfriend number one and move on; after she does, this work sags in the middle as it goes in an unexpected direction, away from the core love story. On-page sex and graphic language land this squarely in the older teen category. VERDICT An additional purchase for libraries where Sarah Dessen's stories are popular.—Elizabeth Friend, Wester Middle School, TX
Kirkus Reviews
2015-05-12A girl looks for definition during the undefinable time before her senior year of high school. The arrival of Silas shakes up the small town of Green Lake—and preacher's kid Westlin's life. Her everyday routine of dating a football star and running an auto-detailing business is upended by the mystery of Silas. He's mercurial, curious, and quirky, and there's something strange about his twin sister, Laurel. The more she learns about Silas, the more West likes him, and good-guy boyfriend Elliot pales increasingly by comparison. Everything about Silas seems perfect, even when Laurel's bad days intrude: there are long conversations about the future, wacky adventures, and nights spent listening to their favorite radio program (a fictional cognate to such documentary shows as This American Life). But when tragedy strikes, West is left wondering how she should shape her life. What defines her, and who can help her with this task? Sommers' debut is languidly paced, befitting the season, and somewhat overpopulated with characters, which further slows things down. Still, many readers will identify with bookish, story-loving West and her frustration with her moment in life. A satisfyingly realistic portrait of small-town life and one girl's spiritual and emotional maturation within it. (Fiction. 14-18)