He’s greeted in his new life by an assortment of acquaintances, Liam, who is white and struggling with depression Maddie, a self-sacrificing white cheerleader with a heart of gold and Aarti, his Indian-American love interest who offers connection. His professor mom’s new tenure-track job transplants Norris mid–school year, and his biting wit and sarcasm are exposed through his cataloging of his new world in a field guide–style burn book. Norris Kaplan, the protagonist of Philippe’s debut novel, is a hypersweaty, uber-snarky black, Haitian, French-Canadian pushing to survive life in his new school. Liv’s high school relationships, especially her conflicts with the popular girls and her first dealings with romance, ring nicely true.Ī teenage, not-so-lonely loner endures the wilds of high school in Austin, Texas. Madsen presents a storyline that, if implausible at its techno-thriller resolution, seems entirely acceptable leading up to that point. Once her up-and-down relationship with Spencer finally grows into a romance and the two can work together, Liv at last confronts her past. Spencer is sympathetic to Liv, but he has problems of his own that cause him to behave in a mercurial fashion toward her. At first, she falls into the popular crowd, although alpha girl Sabrina grows increasingly hostile toward her when Liv makes friends with Sabrina's old boyfriend, Spencer. Nevertheless, she struggles to fit in with the students at her new high school. But she keeps hearing voices and remembering scenes from the lives, apparently, of two different girls whose voices intrude into her daily life at inopportune times. She wouldn’t know a car crash wiped out her memory.

Liv’s physician parents tell her that she’s never before been to school. This interesting story of a girl who can’t remember her earlier life (or perhaps lives) ends up as science fiction but works best as a portrait of a girl’s first encounters with high school relationships and romance.

All the Broken Pieces by Cindi Madsen