All Your Twisted Secrets

Gr 9 Up–Amber, the music prodigy. Sasha, the queen bee. Priya, the loner. Robbie, the baseball jock. Diego, the valedictorian. Scott, the school drug dealer. What do they all have in common? Nothing apparently, but nevertheless, someone has trapped them in the Chesterfield—under the guise of a scholarship dinner—with a syringe full of poison, a bomb, and a note that says they need to pick one of them to die or else they all will. As the bomb counts down, secrets are revealed about each of them and they come to realize that they may be more alike than previously thought. Debut author Urban adds to the growing collection of contemporary teen mysteries with a serviceable, compelling thriller. The narrative is split between the present and the year leading up to the “scholarship dinner.” Readers will be captivated as layers of each teen’s life are peeled back to complicate the mystery. Amber is an intriguing protagonist; she still struggles with her sister’s suicide, while juggling college applications to film score programs, scoring the school play, and her new and overwhelming relationships with Sasha and Robbie, two of the most popular kids in school.