Welcome to one of the stops on the Raincoast Books blog tour for Chelsea Sedoti’s contemporary YA debut, The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett!
Read on for my thoughts on the book as well as a special Q & A with Chelsea!
The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett by Chelsea Sedoti
Source: ARC courtesy of Raincoast Books. Thank you!
Publication: January 3, 2017 by Sourcebooks
Book Description:
Hawthorn wasn’t trying to insert herself into a missing person’s investigation. Or maybe she was. But that’s only because Lizzie Lovett’s disappearance is the one fascinating mystery their sleepy town has ever had. Bad things don’t happen to popular girls like Lizzie Lovett, and Hawthorn is convinced she’ll turn up at any moment-which means the time for speculation is now.
So Hawthorn comes up with her own theory for Lizzie’s disappearance. A theory way too absurd to take seriously… at first. The more Hawthorn talks, the more she believes. And what better way to collect evidence than to immerse herself in Lizzie’s life? Like getting a job at the diner where Lizzie worked and hanging out with Lizzie’s boyfriend. After all, it’s not as if he killed her-or did he?
Told with a unique voice that is both hilarious and heart-wrenching, Hawthorn’s quest for proof may uncover the greatest truth is within herself.
My relationship, if you will, to young adult novels- and contemporary YA especially- has been on a bit of a bumpy journey over the last five years or so. At one point in my life, it was a genre that I read almost exclusively- then drastically dropped to a minimal amount when I felt as though tropes and themes had been too often retread. Nowadays, my reading of YA titles is…careful…cautious…sometimes apprehensive. Thanks to authors such as Jeff Zentner, Kathryn Ormsbee, Lisa Moore, Jane Ozkowski, and J.M. Kelly as of late though, I’ve found much to love and look forward to in YA. Chelsea Sedoti is, I am happy to say, another new YA author that I can add to that refreshing roster.
In The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett, we follow the sometimes meandering, unexpected and unusual first-person narrative of teenager Hawthorn Creely. At the centre of the story is Hawthorn’s fixation with the disappearance of a former high school classmate of her brother’s- the supposedly perfect Lizzie Lovett. To Hawthorn, Lizzie is many things. Perhaps too many things. The girl she remembers as always gorgeous, always popular, forever having other girls look up to her and forever having guys want to be with her. The older, amazing girl who let Hawthorn down years before. When Hawthorn learns that Lizzie has disappeared during the course of a camping trip- possibly murdered by her boyfriend, possibly run away, possibly killed by wild animals in the woods- she gets drawn in further and further into conducting her own investigation…and offering her arguably bizarre, mythical theory as to what happened to Lizzie. As she learns that the Lizzie Lovett she remembers, obsessed over and sometimes (or often) hated was not quite who she thought, Hawthorn becomes even more strangely enmeshed with Lizzie Lovett as she befriends Lizzie’s boyfriend- possible murder suspect- Enzo Calvetti.
Sedoti has, in Hawthorn, created quite an interesting young protagonist and narrator- one of those utterly compelling and exasperating, highly introspective yet oblivious teen characters that I have a tendency to appreciate. Readers may fall in love with Hawthorn, they may like her a lot or a little bit- they could even grow very frustrated with Hawthorn, especially as her friendship with Enzo heaves some major ups, major downs and moments of WHY. However you find Hawthorn, though, her voice is so terrifically imperfect and odd that you might find yourself quite hooked. I especially appreciate how Chelsea writes Hawthorn’s voice as the story leads to the discovery of what actually happened to Lizzie Lovett (we do indeed find out), the fallout from discovery, the manner(s) in which Hawthorn reacts and how the strange trajectory of Lizzie, Enzo and Hawthorn culminates before the close of the story.
Overall, a solid, thoughtful and offbeat read with genuinely felt moments of insight. Readers who have previously enjoyed the work of YA authors such as Jasmine Warga, Julie Halpern, Jessica Martinez or Leila Sales and enjoy contemporary teen reads featuring a stand-out and unusual voice might do very well to check out The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett.
Question Time with Chelsea Sedoti
Bloggers participating in The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett tour had, thanks to the awesomeness of Chelsea and Raincoast Books, the opportunity to ask one question of the author. I had a few brewing here and there but tried to narrow it down to one bigger question that kept percolating as I read the story…
Q: The idea of a ‘Lizzie Lovett’- that person that we think or assume is perfect, is adored, has an easy life, and thus someone we envy deep down- is something that I think most all of us can relate to. Did you have a Lizzie Lovett in your life growing up– and did your relationship to or understanding of that person ever change in surprising ways as you got older?
A:I have this bad habit where I compare myself to other people, then decide I don’t measure up.
The result: I haven’t had one Lizzie Lovett. I’ve had a million of them.
For example, my cousins. It’s an unlucky fact of my life that I’ve grown up with cousins who are basically superhuman. They’re smart. They’re attractive. They’re athletic which, in my sports-obsessed family, is maybe the biggest deal of all. (I should note that I was the kid who got picked last for teams and spent most of PE hiding.)
My cousins are easy-going. In school, they were popular—or at least generally well-liked. They were outgoing, unlike shy, quiet me. They weren’t “weird.” They weren’t “nerds.”
Eventually these cousins grew up and went to college where they quickly and successfully got degrees without bouncing between majors and wondering “But what do I really want to do with my life?” They got great jobs. They married people as awesome as them. They had beautiful kids.
It’s safe to say, I grew up feeling inferior. Constantly. That’s what happens when your family is perfect.
Except my cousins aren’t perfect, not really. I listed their successes, but didn’t bother mentioning their personal struggles. I cut out all the bad stuff that’s happened to them and made generalizations about their lives.
Recently one of these cousins commented to me that it’s amazing I’m getting a book published. That I actually accomplished what I always said I wanted to. That I get to spend my life doing what I’m passionate about.
And yeah, that is amazing.
It drives home the fact that you can spend your whole life envying another person, and never realize that maybe that person envies you too.
It’s hard to keep that in mind sometimes. But I try to remind myself that there’s always more going on with a person than what you see publicly. Even the people who are the most talented, the most beautiful, and the most successful, have struggles and flaws and times of deep unhappiness.
No one is perfect. And sometimes it’s our imperfections that make us the most fascinating.
Thank you so much for your time, Chelsea! It has been a pleasure, and so fascinating and interesting reading your thoughtful answer.
Interested in reading more Q&A’s with Chelsea and more on Lizzie Lovett? You can check out the other great blogs participating in the tour:
I received a copy of this title courtesy of Raincoast Books in exchange for an honest review and for the purposes of this blog tour. All opinions and comments are my own.
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