July 16, 2019 - Anastasia Suen

Past Perfect Life
by Elizabeth Eulberg (Author)

Booktalk: Small-town Wisconsin high school senior Allison Smith loves her life the way it is–spending quality time with her widowed father and her tight-knit circle of friends, including best friend Marian and maybe-more-than-friends Neil. Sure she is stressed out about college applications . . . who wouldn’t be? In a few short months, everything’s going to change, big time.

But when Ally files her applications, they send up a red flag . . . because she’s not Allison Smith. And Ally’s–make that Amanda‘s–ordinary life is suddenly blown apart. Was everything before a lie? Who will she be after? And what will she do as now comes crashing down around her?

Snippet: I don’t . . .

I can’t . . .

This can’t be happening.

This has to be a horrible joke. Some sick prank.

While I have the capacity to comprehend the meaning of every word coming out of Sheriff Gleason’s mouth–I can break down what he’s saying into nouns, verbs, and adverbs–none of it makes sense. It’s as if he’s talking about someone else. The names and the locations he’s including are foreign to me. Yet I am the subject.

How can that be possible?