Critiques en avant-premièreRebecca James

From Publishers Weekly Starred Review. "I didn't go to Alice's funeral." So opens Australian author James's impressive debut, a searing coming-of-age novel that deftly intertwines two violent backstories. Studious Katherine Patterson, who's reading a book under a tree during lunchtime at her Sydney high school, is surprised when Alice Parrie, "beautiful, popular, impossible to miss," hands Katherine an invitation to her 18th birthday party. Alice draws Katherine, who has her reasons for remaining aloof from others, into an addictive relationship that fatally sours as one disturbing secret after another comes to light. James, gifted with unusual insight into teenage agonies, probes Katherine's raw-nerve guilt over her sister Rachel's murder, Alice's self-destructive narcissism, and the healing power of young love. This unflinching exploration of psychological manipulation and the tragedies it creates introduces a promising new talent in literary suspense.

Is it possible to love someone too much? Is it possible to love them so much you wish them dead? Katherine Patterson wishes she could disappear. Instead, she does the next best thing. After the death of her talented younger sister, Katherine leaves her grieving parents to the media's merciless scrutiny and moves to a new city and enrolls in a new school. Wary and alone, she seeks nothing more than anonymity. What she finds instead is the last thing she expected: a friend. Alice Parrie is the most popular and magnetic girl in school. Extroverted, gorgeous, flirtatious, and unpredictable, she is everything that Katherine is not. Her enthusiasm is infectious, her candor sometimes unsettling, and she is impossible to resist. She takes it upon herself to involve Katherine in an entirely different life of parties and trips. She introduces Katherine to Robbie, her soulful on-again, off-again boyfriend. She becomes as close to Katherine as a sister can be, maybe even closer. But Alice has secrets darker than anyone can imagine, and Katherine will soon discover the darkest of them all. For Katherine Patterson, there is no escaping her past - only a descent into a trap far more sinister...and infinitely more seductive.