Wherever Nina Lies

by Lynn Weingarten

Overview

Nina was beautiful, wild, and adored by her younger sister, Ellie. But one day, Nina disappeared. 2 years later, everyone has given up hope that Nina will return, but Ellie knows her sister is out there. If only Ellie had a clue where to look.Then she gets one, in the form of a mysterious drawing. Determined to find Nina, Ellie takes off on a crazy, sexy cross-country road trip with the only person who believes she's got a chance - her hot, adventurous new crush. Along the way, Ellie finds a few things she wasn't planning on. Like love. Lies. And the most shocking thing of all: the truth.

The book contains interior black-and-white illustrations, since the sister's drawings play a crucial role in the story.

KIRKUS called this heart-pounding YA mystery "gripping...Sibling loyalty, quirky characters, misplaced trust and the very questionable kindness of a stranger guarantee a riveting read."Nina was beautiful, wild & adored by her younger sister, Ellie. But, one day, Nina disappeared. 2 years later, everyone has given up hope that Nina will return, but Ellie knows her sister is out there. If only Ellie had a clue where to look.Then she gets one, in the form of a mysterious drawing. Determined to find Nina, Ellie takes off on a crazy, sexy, cross-country road trip with the only person who believes she's got a chance - her hot, adventurous new crush. Along the way,Ellie finds a few things she wasn't planning on. Like love. Lies. And the most shocking thing of all: the truth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545232173
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	01/01/2010
Sold by:	Scholastic, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	60 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Lynn Weingarten is the New York Times bestselling author of Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls and Bad Girls with Perfect Faces, among other novels for teens. Lynn is Creative Director of Dovetail Fiction, a new YA packager and sister business to the packager Working Partners. She lives in Brooklyn, NY. Learn more at lynnweingarten.com

Editorial Reviews

Sixteen-year-old Ellie Wrigley is desperate to find her unconventional, beloved older sister, Nina, who disappeared two years ago, seemingly without a trace. When Ellie uncovers a clue in a local secondhand shop-a drawing that Ellie recognizes as Nina's work-she is determined to investigate, even without her family's support. Ellie's father left years earlier, and her mother is remarkably uninvolved: "Your sister's not missing," Ellie's mother has told her. "She's just not here." Without telling anyone where she is going, Ellie sets off on a cross-country chase with her new crush, Sean, who has also lost a sibling, and seems to be the only one who understands her. The cast of convenient characters also includes Ellie's gay boss at the coffee bar and her suspicious best friend. The story is largely unbelievable, however, debut author Weingarten's fast-paced, chatty style will keep readers tuned in. Ages 14-up. (Feb.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly

Gr 8 Up—Ellie's beloved, artistic, and wild older sister disappeared two years ago. By chance, Ellie finds one of Nina's drawings in a donation box at a thrift store, and with the help of her friend Amanda, who works there, she tracks down the guy who donated the box, leading her on a chase all over the country to find her missing sister. At a party in town, she meets Sean, a guy from a local prep school who thinks fate brought them together. His brother died a few years ago, and he'd do anything to get him back, so he relates to Ellie, and the next thing they know they're driving from their suburb in Illinois to Nebraska, Colorado, and California, following clues. An unbelievable plot—Ellie's mom doesn't care that her daughter is missing for days, Amanda lets her friend run off with a complete stranger, and Nina has made no effort to contact her family despite the ability to do so with the help of police and the Internet—combined with sloppy writing—makes this one hard to recommend, despite the intriguing premise. The story takes an abrupt turn toward a Lifetime movie when Ellie figures out that Sean murdered his brother, who was, in fact, Nina's boyfriend, and that he plans to murder both her and Nina. This road-trip novel pales in comparison to John Green's Paper Towns (Dutton, 2008).—Jennifer Barnes, Homewood Library, IL

School Library Journal

In this gripping debut novel, a compulsive cross-country quest for her missing older sister leads 16-year-old Ellie to the terrifying truth. After her artistic sister Nina's inexplicable disappearance two years ago, Ellie still clings to the hope of finding her. When she stumbles on one of Nina's drawings with a phone number in a vintage shop, Ellie automatically assumes this is a sign. "Fate" connects her with the elusive and enabling Sean, and the impulsive couple pursue Nina's bread-crumb trail of clues from Chicago to a Nevada diner, a Denver tattoo parlor, an Arizona rock concert and eventually San Francisco. Ellie's colloquial first-person, present-tense narration, accented with flashbacks about Nina, reveals her naive but dogged determination and her growing romantic attraction to the increasingly possessive Sean. As she moves closer to Sean and the truth, Ellie and readers simultaneously unravel the bizarre clues that culminate in a shocking finale. Sibling loyalty, quirky characters, misplaced trust and the very questionable kindness of a stranger guarantee a riveting read. (Mystery. 14 & up)

Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Wherever Nina Lies:

"Fans of classic Lois Duncan will find this a diverting way to get their pulses pounding." -- Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"Murder, mystery, and romance all wrap into a road trip." -- Booklist

"[A] gripping debut novel . . . [with] a shocking finale. Sibling loyalty, quirky characters, misplaced trust and the very questionable kindness of a stranger guarantee a riveting read." -- Kirkus Reviews

"Weingarten's fast-paced, chatty style will keep readers tuned in." -- Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher