Despite its potentially frivolous-sounding title (and possible reader association with Sophie Kinsella's lighthearted Confessions of a Shopaholic
and its sequels aimed at adults), British author Waite's compelling novel centers on a thoughtful, levelheaded English teenager. Since the death of Taylor's six-year-old sister the summer before, her depressed mother spends most of each day in her bedroom, leaving Taylor to tend to the housework, food shopping and cooking. The girl feels increasingly left out by her two closest friends ("since playschool days") and feels flattered by the attention of Kat, a pretty classmate who loves clothes. Desperate to spend time with Kat, Taylor raids the meager housekeeping fund her grandfather leaves each week and finances a clothes-shopping expedition for her and Kat. Readers may detect what Taylor cannot—that Kat seems to appear only when she needs something; gradually Taylor learns that Kat is an unstable spendthrift with a sad family life. Occasional flashbacks hint at the circumstances surrounding Laura's death while things spin further out of control for Taylor and her family's finances due to more reckless shopping sprees. Waite invests the narrative with urgency and poignancy as she credibly conveys Taylor's inner turmoil and sets the stage for a revelation of the source of Taylor's deepest guilt and pain. Though dark in places, this tale winds to a brighter and satisfying close. Ages 12-up. (May)
