When 17-year-old River Dean gets dumped by his girlfriend, Penny Brockaway--while in a pedal boat on Echo Park Lake--he believes what he needs is a second chance. So, on his 10.2-mile walk home, when he spots a sign on a tattered awning in East L.A. that proclaims "A SECOND CHANCE," he's convinced that destiny is speaking to him.
He walks through that fateful awning's door and finds himself in an addiction support group for teens. But his problem, according to Penny, is that he doesn't think enough about things: "You just follow along and do what you think you're supposed to do." Sure enough, by the time River leaves that meeting, his apathy, confusion and a desire not to make an even bigger fool of himself has him confessing to a marijuana addiction (not true). River continues to pine for Penny, showing up at her house with soup and flowers and a hangdog face. This obsession keeps him lying to his friends and family and sneaking back to the support group on Saturday nights, where he meets the sharp, beautiful Daphne Vargas, a chronic shoplifter sorting out her own problems. A crazy, messy coincidence links Daphne to Penny, and River's mom and stepdad discover his "addiction." It's time, as the support group leader, Everett, says in every meeting, to "Tell us something real. Tell us something true."
In the witty, page-turning and poignant Tell Us Something True, Dana Reinhardt (The Summer I Learned to Fly; We Are the Goldens) skillfully captures the chaos of adolescence, and also the joy. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor