cover image HELLO LIFE

HELLO LIFE

Andrea Koenig, . . Soho, $24 (272pp) ISBN 978-1-56947-391-7

Koenig chronicles the hard-knocks lives and unlikely friendship of two 16-year-old girls in her uneven new novel, set in a "dreary little mill town" in the Pacific Northwest. Thrown together in foster care, lippy Gwen Pérez, who recently lost her mother, and prissy Lila Abernathy, a ballerina in remission from leukemia, clash and bond. Gwen loves horses and has a secret crush on Dennis, the popular boy who talks to her so she'll do him favors in math class, but Koenig saddles her with more hardship than her mother's death: she becomes sexually active with and pregnant by her absent father's pot-smoking, nearly 40-year-old friend. Koenig propels the tale with punchy, movie-style dialogue that doesn't seem to fit in the mouths of troubled teenagers, and Gwen's narration of the story lacks a consistent tone. The novel's setup might make for inspirational juvenile fiction, in which hardship somehow strengthens the protagonists, but for adult readers the candy-store realism may disappoint. Agent, Elyse Cheney. (May)