Life by Committee

by Corey Ann Haydu

Overview

Secret: I kissed someone else's boyfriend.
Assignment: Do it again.

Like most who find Life by Committee, Tabitha is a little lost. Her best friend has ditched her, her Vermont town is feeling way too small, and she's falling head over heels for a guy named Joe—who already has a girlfriend. Just when Tab is afraid she'll burst from keeping the secret of Joe inside, she discovers Life by Committee. The rules of LBC are simple: tell a secret, receive an assignment. Complete the assignment to keep your secret safe.

Tab likes it that the assignments push her to her limits, empowering her to live boldly and go further than she'd ever go on her own. But in the name of truth and bravery, how far is too far to go?

Perfect for fans of E. Lockhart and Jennifer E. Smith, Life by Committee is a fresh, vibrant novel about the power of wanting, the messiness of friendship, and the truths we hide and share.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062294050
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	05/13/2014
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Corey Ann Haydu is the author of Rules for Stealing Stars and four acclaimed books for teens. She grew up in the Boston area, earned her MFA at the New School, and now lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her dog Oscar. Find out more at www.coreyannhaydu.com.

Editorial Reviews

03/10/2014
Life has gotten weird for 16-year-old Tabitha. Her parents are expecting a baby and fighting about her father’s pot use; her best friend dumped her when a late puberty surge put Tabitha in the “hot” column; and she’s flirting with a guy who has a girlfriend. This is all happening in a small Vermont town where everyone knows everyone, and the whole school has a stake in the opposites-attract relationship between Joe, the jock Tabitha likes, and his girlfriend, an arty, sad-girl type. Then Tabitha discovers the website Life by Committee. Its anonymous members trade in secrets, and their M.O. is escalation: tell a secret, get an assignment, then repeat. Tabitha reveals that she kissed Joe, and her assignment is to do it again. Haydu (OCD Love Story) gets at the push-pull between wanting to keep and to divulge secrets, as well as the way that anatomy can feel like destiny. While the school-wide obsession with Joe’s girlfriend seems overstated, Haydu keeps a multi-strand plot moving, and the climax, a kind of 12-step meeting meets high-school assembly, is cathartic. Ages 14–up. Agent: Victoria Marini, Gelfman Schneider. (May)

Publishers Weekly

An authentic, heartfelt read about the power of truth and the beauty of self-discovery.

Sarah Ockler

Life by Committee is a fun, smart, and moving read with every delicious ingredient-romance, secrets, and unexpected twists. Assignment: Read this one.

Deb Caletti

(Not so) Secret: I immediately fell in love with Corey Ann Haydu’s wonderful, fresh story about truth, love, and bravery. Your assignment: Read Life by Committee immediately!

Elizabeth Eulberg

This book is brilliant, thrumming with honesty and surprising truths.

Terra Elan McVoy

2014-03-17
Sixteen-year-old Tabitha has a secret. She kissed someone else's boyfriend, and she liked it. And with the encouragement of a secret, online committee, she just might do it again. Fans of Haydu's OCD Love Story (2013) will once again bear witness to a female protagonist hurling herself headfirst into a social train wreck of her own creation. Tabitha is an avid reader and gifted student whose burgeoning sexuality resulted in her two best friends' unceremoniously breaking up with her over the summer. It isn't helping either matters or her reputation now that she has a not-so-secret crush on a classmate's boyfriend. The lure of those forbidden feelings proves impossible to resist despite her conscience. When Tabitha discovers Life by Committee, an anonymous online community where members share their secrets and are given "assignments" designed to empower them to live big or go home, it becomes increasingly difficult for Tabitha to discern right from wrong. In this brave new world of social media, the story's premise makes for an intriguing, though at times incredibly uncomfortable, read. The online community comes across as cultlike, and it's hard to watch Tabitha's increasingly costly choices. For readers who can stomach the ride, it's a novel that will leave them thinking. Looking for a book to read and discuss? This is it. (Fiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews

04/01/2014
Gr 9 Up—Tabitha has hit puberty, gaining new curves, and has gotten a little boy crazy. Her best friends, feeling she has changed too radically, have dropped her cold. Her young parents are sympathetic but also slightly embarrassing, especially her pot-smoking father. Searching for friendship, she stumbles onto an online community called Life by Committee that makes her feel brave and a part of something. LBC members share secrets and are given assignments by the group's leader, tasks they say will help one grow as a person. Tabitha's secret is that she kissed someone else's boyfriend. Her assignment is to kiss him again. The teen starts to wonder if performing these dares, even though they make her feel free-spirited, is any way to live her life. Haydu captures the wild emotions of adolescence: the surging hormones, the power of getting people to pay attention because of your body, and the confusion over how that makes you feel. The narrative includes plenty of current teen concerns: online safety, gay friends, first love and sexual experience, drugs, sibling jealousy, and school achievement pressure—all culminating in a final scene pulled straight from the movies. The message about being your own person and making your own choices can be a bit heavy-handed, but readers who are avidly involved in social media communities will relate to the thrill of confessing secrets to strangers, rather than friends and family.—Geri Diorio, Ridgefield Library, CT

School Library Journal