Girl in the Headlines

by Hannah Jayne

Overview

The headlines say she killed her family. The truth? She doesn't remember.

Andrea McNulty goes to sleep on her eighteenth birthday with a near-perfect life. The next morning, she wakes up covered in blood. Her parents were killed in the middle of the night...and she's the prime suspect.

Andrea McNulty has a wonderful life: she's a high school field hockey star, a doted-upon big sister, the beloved daughter of two happy parents. But when she wakes up in a motel room the morning after her eighteenth birthday, she's covered in blood and can't remember what happened the previous night.

According to the news, Andi's parents were brutally attacked in the middle of the night. Her father is dead, her mother is in a coma, her little brother Josh is missing—and Andi is the prime suspect. Terrified and on the run from the police, Andi teams up with Nate, the sympathetic boy working the motel's front desk, to find the real murderer. But while the police are getting further from the killer, the killer is getting closer to Andi—closer than she could ever have imagined.

Pick up The Girl in the Headlines if you're looking for:

A psychological, fast-paced thriller

A suspenseful, shocking read

Fiction examining death and grief

A coming of age story with a twist

Also by Hannah Jayne:
Truly, Madly, Deadly
Twisted
See Jane Run
The Dare
The Revenge
The Escape
Copycat

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781728225210
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	07/06/2021
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	183,572
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.88(d)
Lexile:	HL730L (what's this?)
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Hannah Schwartz lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and writes cozy mysteries, young adult fiction, chick lit, and grocery lists that she never seems to remember to bring to the grocery store. Hannah shares a house with two neurotic, feet-attacking cats and has Kryptonite-like weakness for donuts. Visit www.hannahjschwartz.com.

Editorial Reviews

"The action starts on the first page as readers are introduced to Andi's plight, and the pace does not let up until the final resolution." — Booklist

"[T]his is a propulsive...story rife with true-crime TV tropes and plenty of red herrings." — Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

06/01/2021

Gr 7 Up—Andi has no memory of what happened on the night of her 18th birthday when she wakes up the next morning in an unfamiliar motel room, covered in blood. She wanders into the lobby, hoping for some information about how she got there. Instead of clarity, she sees a sensational news story about her family: Her parents were brutally assaulted in their home, her younger brother is missing, and she is the number one suspect in the crimes. With the conveniently helpful motel clerk, mixed-race Nate, as her only ally, Andi, who has olive skin, sets out to find her brother, clear her name, and solve the mystery of her past that may be at the heart of the tragedy. Jayne renders Andi's insecurity about what she'd believed to be her perfect family alongside Nate's own abandonment issues, and attempts to subvert stereotypes of "neglected kids" in the process. But it's never clear why Nate decides to help Andi, and his near-absence from the final third of the novel only exacerbates this confusion. Readers hoping for a heartfelt portrayal of the impacts of childhood traumas will be left wanting more. VERDICT A fast-paced thriller that is driven more by plot than character. Recommended for very large collections.—Dana West, Nathan Hale H.S., Seattle

School Library Journal

2021-04-30
A high schooler is hunted for a crime she can’t remember.

Athletic, asthmatic Andrea McNulty had a happy life with her adoptive parents and little brother, Josh. But when she awakes in a strange motel room after her 18th birthday, bruised and bloody, she finds her family’s peace shattered, her parents possibly dead, and her brother missing. Unable to remember what transpired the previous night, Andi finds a street-wise ally in oddly helpful motel employee Nate (described as mixed-race; which races are not specified). Floundering through her sudden ejection from the sheltered, middle-class life of her White family, Andi soon uncovers suburbia’s seedier side—and dark family secrets. No accomplished amateur sleuth, Andi’s attempts to exonerate herself and find the perpetrators just feed the media frenzy. As the news outlets and her former friends sensationalize Andi’s rough childhood—a birth mother addicted to heroin, issues in the adoption process following her time in foster care—Andi begins to question everything and everyone. Jayne gestures at but doesn’t fully explore poverty or racism: Certain characters come off as caricatures, with their tacky nails, cigarettes, and prison sentences, more driven by greed than downtrodden by the system. Overall, this is a propulsive—if occasionally illogical and unlikely—story rife with true-crime TV tropes and plenty of red herrings.

A teen thriller that questions middle-class myths. (Thriller. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews