REVIEW: The New Girl by Jesse Q Sutanto
Book Reviews / C+ ReviewsAsian Americans / Athlete / bullying / class differences / First-Person / high-school / murder / POC / POC author / racism / Violence / Young-Adult3 Comments
She’s a liar. A cheater. A murderer. And it’s only her first semester.
From the author of The Obsession and Dial A For Aunties comes a story of a deadly game of cat and mouse set in the halls of a school that is hiding more than secrets in its walls.
Lia Setiawan has never really fit in. And when she wins a full ride to the prestigious Draycott Academy on a track scholarship, she’s determined to make it work even though she’s never felt more out of place.
But on her first day there she witnesses a girl being forcefully carried away by campus security. Her new schoolmates and teachers seem unphased, but it leaves her unsure of what she’s gotten herself into.
And as she uncovers the secrets of Draycott, complete with a corrupt teacher, a golden boy who isn’t what he seems, and a blackmailer determined to get her thrown out, she’s not sure if she can trust anyone…especially when the threats against her take a deadly turn.
CW – toxic bullying, violent death, drug use
Dear Ms. Sutanto,
Last year I read “The Obsession” and “Dial A for Aunties” and loved them. Both were dark, twisted, and funny. So of course I immediately requested arcs for this year’s follow-up – or in this case prequel – books for them both. As it takes place a year or so before “The Obsession,” there’s no need to read that book first. I read “The New Girl” in one day, didn’t want to put it down, but ended up with some squeamish reservations about the actions of almost everyone in the book. Yeah, even the heroine wasn’t heroic to me.
We’re back at Draycott Academy, that high school for the uber wealthy and a few charity cases to make the school look like they care about the 99%. Lia is literally The New Girl who is there on a track scholarship which she hopes is her ticket to a full ride at a top university. Her father’s Indonesian Chinese family might be sickeningly rich but as dad (who died when Lia was a child) married an Indonesian woman [gasp! the horror!], they look down on her and her mother. Lia knows she’ll be among the super wealthy at the Academy but an event on her first day there tells her that this place is a cesspool.
Still she tries to fit in as well as she can, make friends, study hard, and keep her scholarship. Soon however, things move beyond the bullying and cheating and Lia’s fighting for her life. And that’s only the start. Desperately trying to keep all the balls in the air that she’s juggling, will Lia keep her secrets as she tries to uncover everyone else’s?
The start is slow but then the pace of the story picks up to white hot. As I said, I read it in a day and had trouble putting it down. The darkness is very dark with bullying and racism (there’s an Asian social hierarchy that plays out even in school) and the children of the 1% who are used to getting anything they want. Parties in SF nightclubs with free flowing champagne and drugs, private jet trips to Las Vegas, Chanel dresses and Prada handbags, yachts – these kids have all this and more. Lia soon discovers that some of them might accept her as a friend but that the deck is still stacked against her and the school authorities only want to keep from rocking the boat.
Lia does a lot of things that made me remind myself that these situations are all new to her and she’s only a sophomore (I’m guessing she’s about 16). Still a few of the situations she enters into or lets herself be put in had me shaking my head and wondering how smart she was. Occasionally her naivete is breathtaking. Her’s is the only POV there and at times she’s unreliable at best. There are a few plot holes and inconsistencies along the way and times when things become a bit of a mess. I also guessed quite a few of the plot twists. But what really took this book down for me was the fact that despite feeling guilty at some of the things she did, Lia not only keeps doing them but also piles on some more due only to white hot rage. She moved past self preservation and justice and entered revenge territory. If there are more books set in this Draycott Academy universe, I’m not sure I want to dive into the pool of toxicity and read them. C+
~Jayne
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For goodness’ sake. Whoever wrote the publisher’s blurb should be send to remedial English class. Unphased?
@LML, I have only read that far on the page and had to see if someone else had spotted the error. Correct spellers unite!
This is one of the many strange things in English language. There’s phase and also there is faze. It’s a word use issue that any writer or editor at a publishing company should understand.