TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE

A single mom and her 11-year-old daughter, who are trying to start over, move to a small New England town, but it’s harder to leave their pasts behind than they thought.

Sherri Griffin has just moved to Newburyport, Massachusetts, with her daughter, Katie, and has somehow gotten her a spot in one of the more coveted summer surf day camps, much to the surprise of the long-term town moms. The first day of camp marks the beginning of Sherri's and Katie’s individual efforts to make new friends and redefine themselves—Sherri among the Mom Squad, aka The Group, which rules the social scene among the rising sixth grade parents in their little town, and Katie among those moms’ daughters. Author Moore offers a relatively standard narrative structure of rotating between a number of main characters’ points of view to tell the story. In addition to Sherri and her murky past, there is Rebecca Coleman, a second grade teacher on summer break who is struggling with grief over the sudden death of her husband 18 months before, guilt over her desire to make new friends and start dating, and irritation at her old friends; and Alexa Thornhill, Rebecca’s 17-year-old daughter, who is planning for her post–high school future on her terms and not those of her mother. Refreshingly, however, Moore also employs a breezy style to share the gossipy feel of the groupthink of the Mom Squad as an additional point of view. This is a book that tiptoes between genres. Is it a mystery? A thriller? A teen coming-of-age exegesis? A beach read that leans into a potential romantic fairy-tale ending? Surprisingly, the story elements that successfully create narrative tension and draw the reader through the volume are discarded at the close. Instead, the reader is given an ending that is as capricious as life itself.

A crackling narrative that starts strong and ends abruptly.