In Reconstructing Amelia, the stunning New York Times bestselling debut novel from Kimberly McCreight, Kate's in the middle of the biggest meeting of her career when she gets the telephone call from...
In Reconstructing Amelia, the stunning New York Times bestselling debut novel from Kimberly McCreight, Kate's in the middle of the biggest meeting of her career when she gets the telephone call from...
Due to publisher restrictions, your digital library cannot purchase additional copies of this title. We apologize if there is a long holds list. You may want to see if other editions of this title are available from your digital library instead.
Due to publisher restrictions, your digital library cannot purchase additional copies of this title. We apologize if there is a long holds list. You may want to see if other editions of this title are available from your digital library instead.
Description-
In Reconstructing Amelia, the stunning New York Times bestselling debut novel from Kimberly McCreight, Kate's in the middle of the biggest meeting of her career when she gets the telephone call from Grace Hall, her daughter's exclusive private school in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Amelia has been suspended, effective immediately, and Kate must come get her daughter—now. But Kate's stress over leaving work quickly turns to panic when she arrives at the school and finds it surrounded by police officers, fire trucks, and an ambulance. By then it's already too late for Amelia. And for Kate.
An academic overachiever despondent over getting caught cheating has jumped to her death. At least that's the story Grace Hall tells Kate. And clouded as she is by her guilt and grief, it is the one she forces herself to believe. Until she gets an anonymous text: She didn't jump.
Reconstructing Amelia is about secret first loves, old friendships, and an all-girls club steeped in tradition. But, most of all, it's the story of how far a mother will go to vindicate the memory of a daughter whose life she couldn't save. Fans of Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl will find Reconstructing Amelia just as gripping and surprising.
Kimberly McCreight is the New York Times bestselling author of Reconstructing Amelia, which was nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, and Alex Awards; Where They Found Her; and The Outliers young adult trilogy. She attended Vassar College and graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters.
Reviews-
January 21, 2013 After her teenage daughter Amelia’s mysterious suicide, litigation attorney Kate Baron becomes an unlikely amateur sleuth in McCreight’s diverting, if busy, debut. Kate’s grief over Amelia’s death and guilt about her failures as a mother are compounded by a series of anonymous text messages intimating that Amelia was actually murdered. She partners up with NYPD Lt. Lewis Thompson, who involves her, to an implausible degree, as an equal in the investigation as they trawl through Amelia’s online history and interview her classmates and their families. The real story of Amelia’s life and death emerges slowly, through a creative blend of Kate’s present, Amelia’s past, and such varied communication methods as texts, e-mails, blog entries, and Facebook status updates, leading to a chaotic landslide of climactic revelations that strains believability. Amelia’s first-person narration provides the most human note, as McCreight portrays the darkness of adolescence, complete with doomed love, bullies, poisonous friendship, and insecurity. Fans of literary thrillers will enjoy the novel’s dark mood and clever form, even if the mystery doesn’t entirely hold together. Agent: Marly Rusoff, Marly Rusoff and Associates.
April 1, 2013
Kate Baron, a single mother and partner at a Manhattan law firm, is astonished to get a phone call about the suspension of her 15-year-old daughter, Amelia, previously an excellent student at a prestigious Brooklyn private school. But by the time Kate arrives at the school to pick her up, Amelia is dead in a fall from the roof. While the police investigation rules Amelia's death a suicide, Kate soon receives an anonymous text saying that Amanda didn't jump. Grieving, guilt-stricken, and desperate to better understand her daughter, Kate starts looking into recent events in Amelia's life, aided by a seasoned detective who reopens the case and discovers that the cruelty of teenagers pales next to adult vengeance. VERDICT Debut novelist McCreight tailors her format to her subject, sprinkling text messages and blog postings into a narrative that zigzags in chronology over a period of several months. Alternating perspectives from Kate and Amelia reveal the inner lives of a woman trying to balance motherhood with a demanding career and a teenager struggling with her blossoming sexuality while dealing with severe bullying. Despite a plot heavily dependent on coincidence, this is a compulsively readable novel that will appeal to Jodi Picoult fans. [See Prepub Alert, 10/28/12.]--Michele Leber, Arlington, VA
Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Entertainment Weekly
"Like Gone Girl, Reconstructing Amelia seamlessly marries a crime story with a relationship drama. And like Gone Girl, it should be hailed as one of the best books of the year...A"
Jodi Picoult
"Just finished a fantastic novel–Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight. So. Well. Done. If you liked Gone Girl, you'll love this too."
USA Today
"Clever and scary . . . McCreight has her finger on the private school zeitgeist. . .and this disturbing tale will make older readers fondly recall the days when kids got in trouble for passing (print) notes in class."
BookPage
"Reconstructing Amelia will keep you hooked till the last page."
Entertainment Weekly, “Summer Must” List
"Gossip Girl meets Gone Girl."
People.com Staff Pick
"Wow! I was pulled in after reading the first page.... It's sort of a thriller/prep school teen drama that is full of secrets."
New York Times
"[A] mystery with enough red herring to stock Lake Michigan...this is the novel most likely to be found in coming weeks not on the beach but on the F train. "
Jennifer McMahon, New York Times-bestselling author of The One I Left Behind
"McCreight captures the complexities, cruelty and angst of teenage girls so well my stomach was in knots. What really happened to Amelia? You'll find yourself staying up all night to find out."
Publishers Weekly
"The real story of Amelia's life and death emerges slowly, through a creative blend of Kate's present, Amelia's past, and such varied communication methods as texts, e-mails, blog entries, and Facebook status updates. . . . Fans of literary thrillers will enjoy the novel's dark mood and clever form."
Kirkus Reviews
"A multilayered legal thriller. . . . Comes to a seamless and unanticipated conclusion."
Booklist
"An elaborately plotted mystery. . . . A harrowing story. . . . McCreight does a fne job of building suspense and creating characters, notably Kate and Amelia, whom the target audience—both adults and older teens—will care about and empathize with."
Library Journal
"McCreight combines a poignant, pulled-from-the-headlines story with writing sanctified by Antietam Review and Oxford magazine."
Daily Candy
"We love a powerful debut, and this is just that.... It's Mean Girls meets The Secret History meets the cyberbullying case of Amanda Todd––and it's unputdownable."
School Library Journal
"Fast-paced and suspenseful.... a page-turning mystery and thriller will appeal to...fans of Jodi Picoult."
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Kimberly McCreight's debut novel shines a light on teen-girl culture....I wanted to keep reading."
Click
"A tale of elaborate mystery intertwined with the tenderness of a mother's love, Reconstructing Amelia exudes suspense at every turn.... Gripping and tragic, [it] is a true page turner."
Title Information+
Publisher
HarperCollins
Kindle Book
Release date:
OverDrive Read
Release date:
EPUB eBook
Release date:
Digital Rights Information+
Copyright Protection (DRM) required by the Publisher may be applied to this title to limit or prohibit printing or copying. File sharing or redistribution is prohibited. Your rights to access this material expire at the end of the lending period. Please see Important Notice about Copyrighted Materials for terms applicable to this content.
A portion of your purchase goes to support your digital library.
Sorry, no retailers are currently available for this title. Please check back later.
| Sign In
The first time you select “Send to NOOK,” you will be taken to a Barnes & Noble page to sign into (or create) your NOOK account. You should only have to sign into your NOOK account once to link it to your library account. After this one-time step, periodicals will be automatically sent to your NOOK account when you select "Send to NOOK."
You can read periodicals on any NOOK tablet or in the free NOOK reading app for iOS, Android or Windows 8.
Renewing this title won't extend your lending period. Instead, it will let you borrow the title again immediately after your first lending period expires.
You can't renew this title because there are holds on it. However, you can join the holds list and be notified when it becomes available for you to borrow again.
