Picture drawn by Maggie Stiefvater, 2009. Header made by S.F. Robertson, 2010.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

The Art of Secrets by James Klise

The Art of Secrets by James Klise
"When Saba Khan’s apartment burns in a mysterious fire, possibly a hate crime, her Chicago high school rallies around her. Her family moves rent-free into a luxury apartment, Saba’s Facebook page explodes, and she starts (secretly) dating a popular boy. Then a quirky piece of art donated to a school fund-raising effort for the Khans is revealed to be an unknown work by a famous artist, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, and Saba’s life turns upside down again. Should Saba’s family have all that money? Or should it go to the students who found the art? Or to the school? And just what caused that fire?

Greed, jealousy, and suspicion create an increasingly tangled web as students and teachers alike debate who should get the money and begin to point fingers and make accusations. The true story of the fire that sets events in motion and what happens afterward gradually comes together in an innovative narrative made up of journal entries, interviews, articles, letters, text messages, and other documents."- summary from Amazon

I loved Klise's debut (Love Drugged) and was so excited to see that my library had a copy of his follow-up novel. It's a different type of story from him; this book has many different perspectives and, like the summary says, it's told through a variety of ways- journal entries, interviews, articles, etc. It's an extremely interesting and compelling read that propelled me through the book very quickly. Klise inhabits each of these characters with ease and writes realistically for each of them, though everyone is of different backgrounds, ages, etc.

Overall, a fantastic second novel from Klise, and I'm excited to see what he does next. If you haven't read either of his books yet, do so now!

FTC: Borrowed book from library. Link above is an Amazon Associate link; any profit goes toward funding contests.

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