In You Look Different in Real Life, Jennifer Castle (The Beginning of After) digs deeply into the complexities of life through the lens of a series of documentaries similar to Seven Up (made in 1964 by Britain's Granada Television) and its follow-up films.
"Sometimes, I hit pause at a random moment when I'm on film and stare at my eyes, and try to figure out why they chose me," says narrator Justine. When she was six years old, Justine was featured in a documentary with four other children who shared the same table in kindergarten. The show documented their families, their friends and their school. Five years later, her sense of humor made Justine the darling of the documentary when the crew came back to film them again. Now the same producers have returned to capture Five at Sixteen. Except things are quite different now from when the kids were six. Justine is unsure that she can live up to the expectations set by the previous films. And the other four teens aren't exactly jumping at the chance either.
Between flashbacks to earlier films and personal interactions between the people who have grown up on camera together, readers will easily become invested in each person's story. Castle does a superb job of endowing each teenager with depth and emotion, even though the narration is solely through Justine's point of view. The complexity of life shines through as we discover, along with the teenagers, just how much someone can change, especially when his or her life has been public for years. --Shanyn Day, blogger at Chick Loves Lit