Sketchy

Just out of rehab but still surrounded by a culture of middle-class substance abuse, Bea Washington manages to hold onto common sense and humor most of the time. It helps that she makes a gay best friend with chutzpah on her first day at a new high school. Chris’s blunt honesty contrasts with the posing and lies of most of the senior class, including homecoming queen Willa, who barely survived a brutal sexual assault and claims to remember nothing, but is pouring drugs into her own body at an alarming rate. Bea has a tool that might crack that facade: she can sketch images of what people are thinking. Samms’s debut launches a series that promises to be a fresh breath in the crowded YA paranormal genre. Bea has a realistic voice that doesn’t shrink from the truth about her world—not just drugs, but sex, racism, bullying, and violence are tackled in the book—and her experiences hit home in the most genuine ways. Ages 14–up. Agent: Lisa Gallagher, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. (Apr.)