The Truth About White Lies

April 18, 2022
Following the death of her grandmother, 17-year-old white Shania Hester is uprooted from her rural life to the city of South Blue Rock, where her grandmother lived, to help her mother settle her affairs. There, Shania finds herself caught between new friend Michelle Broadus, who is Black, and popular white siblings Catherine and Prescott Tane. Shania is challenged to confront her unconscious bias toward the gentrifying community while repeatedly denying her white privilege. Tired of “walking through the minefield” of being white, Shania befriends the Tanes, who seemingly move through the world unaffected by the racial turmoil surrounding them. But after a devastating revelation threatens the image of both her grandmother and Prescott, Shania must acknowledge how her family’s history affects her present, and choose to either return to the safety of ignorance or forge a new path forward. While Black characters suffer violence and are relegated to unwilling participants in Shania’s journey, Cole (An Anatomy of Beasts) portrays Shania’s justifications of racism, and her resistance to examine her privilege, with unapologetic gravity. Through astute narration, Cole thoughtfully unpacks the costly consequences of passivity in the face of racism and the “little white lies” told to maintain the status quo. Ages 14–up. Agent: Regina Brooks, Serendipity Literary.

January 15, 2022
A teenage girl learns heavy life lessons about the costs of the lies we tell ourselves and others. Shania is a 17-year-old White girl, newly arrived in South Blue Rock with her mother shortly after the sudden death of her beloved grandmother, a tragedy that has left her feeling adrift. Shania is seeking a sense of belonging and is drawn to Michelle, a Black girl in her botany class who shares her love of gardening. Then she finds herself in the orbit of rich, popular Catherine, a White classmate. Soon after, Prescott, Catherine's brother and Shania's crush, also notices her. Spurred on by notes left in a prized almanac and cryptic last words from her grandmother, Shania slowly learns that there is much more to the people in her life. Family secrets, the history of South Blue Rock, and conflicts between her new friends threaten to unravel much of what Shania desperately wants to be true. Will she continue to be willfully ignorant about injustices in return for a more comfortable existence? Or will she risk uncovering harsh, violent, and possibly unforgivable truths? Cole's writing is captivating as she weaves a story that may feel all too familiar with its overarching themes of the weaponization and justification of racism and the ripples of blatant and subtle bigotry that may become tsunamis. This book is sure to hit home with many readers. An honest, searing look at the roots and rotten fruits of White supremacy. (Fiction. 14-18)

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Starred review from March 15, 2022
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* When 17-year-old Shania's beloved grandmother dies, her mother moves them to the city of Blue Rock. There, Shania, who is white, finds herself a student at the prestigious Bard Academy, where she is instantly smitten with rich golden boy Prescott, whose erratic, often strident sister, Caroline, befriends her. She also meets Michelle, who is Black, and the two begin a tentative friendship, only for Shania to discover that Michelle and Caroline detest each other. Can she be a friend to both? And then there's Prescott and Caroline's brother--steady, quiet Ben--who seems interested in her, too. Despite these tensions, Shania begins to settle in, but then an epidemic of lies begins to emerge that involves everyone she knows, even her mother and grandmother. Shania is shaken when she begins to discover the truth behind the lies, most disturbingly the endemic racism that affects her new friends. Things come to a head when a local homeless Black man is beaten to death. Who is responsible? Cole has done a brilliant job in this book of dealing with the ugliness of white supremacy and its vile impact on young lives. Not only is the book powerful, it is beautifully written, bringing its nuanced characters fully to life. It is, altogether, an important book, deserving the widest possible readership.

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August 19, 2022

Gr 9 Up-A shy newbie at an elite high school struggles with a racist family history discovered following her beloved grandmother's passing. Country-raised and grieving the unexpected death of her grandmother, white teen Shania Hester moves to the nearby city of Blue Rock as a high school junior to attend the elite Bard Academy for Excellence. She brings her lunch from home and works extra shifts at a donut shop to pay for fixing a crooked front tooth that makes her self-conscious; she doesn't want to burden her mother with the cost. Despite these self-reliant bona fides, Shania's more weak than strong, especially after she uncovers a family secret: her great-grandfather participated in racist redlining in Blue Rock that denied housing to Black residents. She gradually deteriorates into an insecure and impressionable girl in thrall to two classmates, siblings from the wealthy Tane family. Shania swoons over Prescott's baby blues, and even though he's controlling and their time together is on his terms, she skips work and cuts class without complaint. His sister Catherine, a popular queen bee type, loops shy Shania into her crew for reasons that at first seem unclear. Shania doesn't guess the siblings' motives: Catherine's is to protect her brother, and the motive of Prescott, a likely white supremacist and certain perpetrator of a racist hate crime, is to use Shania as a patsy. Does Shania's guilt about her past blind her to Prescott's present threat and violent acts? VERDICT This novel sags under the weight of its own intentions and a protagonist who can't help readers figure them out.-Georgia Christgau

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