November 1, 2010
Gr 9 Up-Carrie Pilby was a child prodigy. She skipped three grades but never learned how to make friends. Her father told her she'd find like-minded people in college, specifically Harvard. She refers to this as his "Big Lie." She graduates at 19, moves back to NYC, and still has no one. She can't find anyone morally and intellectually acceptable. Her therapist gives her homework: identify things she loves and do them, go on a date, go to a New Year's Eve party, join a club. So begins her journey toward acceptance of others and herself. Carrie is so thoughtful, inquisitive, and philosophically self-searching that readers will believe she's a genius. Her observations of New York and New Yorkers alone could fill a very interesting book. Though the narrative is almost completely inside Carrie's head, her introspection never crosses into navel-gazing. Her thoughts are never boring, even when she's thinking about math. Carrie Pilby is a page-turner, and the will she or won't she find love and understanding moves the deceptively uneventful plot. Even as she fails and fails, Carrie's efforts to integrate bring the mood of the novel slowly out of quiet darkness to buoyant light. Her struggle for acceptance is so universally teenage, smart girls (and women) will pull for her to the end.-Johanna Lewis, New York Public Library
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