What I Saw and How I Lied
By Judy Blundell
New York, Scholastic, 2008, 281 pgs.
World War II has just ended. Evie and her mother are happy to have the man of the house, Joe Spooner return. Evie’s mother Beverly married Joe shortly before the war began and they finally have the opportunity to live together as a family. Joe is a successful businessman but receives mysterious phone calls from people who seem to want money from him. After one of these phone calls, Joe decides to take his wife and step daughter to Palm Beach, Florida for a surprise vacation. In Florida, Evie begins to realize that her family is not as innocent as she thought. A handsome ex-GI named Peter Coleridge takes interest in Evie and she immediately falls for him despite his mysterious connection to her father, Joe.
Meanwhile, Evie’s mother is still treating her like a little girl, not the lovely teenager she’s becoming. There’s quite a bit of talk about clothing styles and what little girls wear as opposed to grown-up girls, which is a sign of the time in which this story takes place. Beverly doesn’t want her to wear dresses or lipstick, even though she loves to flaunt her own beauty. When Evie takes matters into her own hands and dresses in Beverly’s clothing, she feels better. However, when her mother and Mrs. Grayson (a guest of the hotel in which they are staying) interrupt her, they laugh and decide to give her a ‘makeover’ as if she’s their little doll. Evie feels very embarrassed by what they do to her and is feeling very low. On this particular night she meets Peter, who dances with her and makes her feel special.
The longer the Spooner’s stay in Florida, the more lies unravel. Peter confesses to E vie that he and her father, along with other American soldiers, stole things from a German warehouse; things that once belonged to the Jews and were confiscated by German soldiers. They take these things, candlesticks, rugs, jewelry, etc., because they want to make it rich back home. Joe ends up with all the money and Peter wants his share, a share Joe is not willing to part with. On top of this, the Graysons are kicked out of their Palm Beach hotel because it is discovered that they are Jewish causing the business deal between Joe and the Mr. Grayson to buy the hotel to turn sour. Finally, in a not so surprising twist of events, Evie discovers Peter has been having an affair with her mother and her world is torn apart.
The pot is about to boil on the morning when Peter, Joe, and Beverly rent a boat for a pleasure cruise despite an incoming hurricane. Evie is left behind and ends up at a hurricane shelter fearing her family and beloved are dead. In the morning, she is informed her parents are alive but Peter is missing and probably dead. Next is a whirlwind murder trial for Evie’s parents. Evie is almost sure they killed Peter but lies on the witness stand to kept her parents from going to jail.
I don’t know that I would have made the same decisions as Evie at the end of the book. To me, her parents were so low they deserved to go to jail. Her father was a lying thief and her mother a cheating, self-centered, you-know-what. Why did she lie to spare them? Evie seemed so angry and disgusted with them at the end of the book I was really surprised she did what she did. She undermined her own good reputation to save their pathetic ones. Of course, Evie does try to make things right with the Graysons and takes them a huge stash of Joe’s money as reparations for what he did to their people. I was slightly disappointed in this book. It was rather slow-going and predictable, with an ambiguous ending. However, the cover and title are very appealing and I think many teen girls will read it. I give it a 3Q and 3P VOYA rating.
No comments:
Post a Comment