Without Annette

Gr 9 Up—Josephine "Josie" Little has been looking forward to attending Brookwood Academy, a prestigious boarding school in rural Connecticut, with her girlfriend, Annette Anderson. She feels she has saved Annette from her alcoholic and abusive mother, Shannon, in their hometown of Virginia Falls, MN. While Josie struggles to adjust to Brookwood, Annette fits in with Rebecca (Becca) Ryder, Marina Carlisle, and Cynthia Wu, whom Josie refers to as the Soleets (social elites). Annette's quest for acceptance prompts her to keep her same-sex relationship with Josie a secret from the Soleets and the other students. While Josie agrees to the arrangement, Annette pushes her further and further away for recreational peer pressure moments with the Soleets. Meanwhile, Josie befriends Roxanne Wylde, her off-beat and acerbic roommate, and Penn McCarthy, a boy who harbors romantic feelings for Josie. Annette's self-destructive quest for acceptance causes an unexpected medical emergency, which throws a monkey wrench into Josie and Annette's clandestine relationship. Mason has woven a smart and witty debut YA novel. All of the characters are multidimensional and well delineated. Josie and Annette are not an idealized LGBT couple. The Soleets are not depicted as Mean Girls. Penn's friend Sam Moon pokes fun at the prevailing stereotype of Asian Americans as the model minority. The author also works in strands of anthropology, which plays a pivotal role in the backstory of Edward Hunter, a former Brookwood Academy student and promising science genius who died mysteriously in the boiling room 50 years before. His backstory intertwines Brookwood's past with Josie's present. Mason will shock readers with unexpected twists and turns and surprising reveals.