True Life in Uncanny Valley
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- $159.00
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- $159.00
Descripción editorial
From the acclaimed author of A Heart in a Body in the World comes the gripping story of a girl living a lie in order to find the truth about her family and herself.
Eleanor, like so many others, is used to watching her famous father from afar. To the world, Hugo Harrison is the brilliant and charismatic tech genius whose AI inventions seem to create a new, better reality. But to Eleanor, whose mother had an affair with Hugo years ago, he is something even more intriguing, and dangerous—a secret.
When Eleanor’s spying leads her to a posting for a live-in summer nanny job for Hugo's young son—her half-brother—she knows she has to apply. This is finally her chance to learn about her father, his family, and the life that could have been hers. She only has to do one thing: become someone else. With just a few well-placed lies, Eleanor is catapulted into an unfamiliar, intoxicating whirlwind of money and ego, and into a new romance with a cute boy who works for Hugo. But in a place where image is everything and reality can be rewritten, is anything real—even the Harrisons themselves?
Caught between her own secrets and the ones she’s uncovering about her father and his latest invention, Eleanor faces a question that technology can't answer: what is your true self, and how do you know when you find her?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Everyone wants to know what famous tech magnate Hugo Harrison's next invention will be. That is, except for rising high school senior Eleanor Diamond, who's only interested in Hugo's personal life; he is her father, after all, even if he did abandon her, her sister, and her mother. Then she learns that Hugo's wife, Aurora, is looking for a live-in summer nanny for Arlo, Hugo's young son and Eleanor's half brother. Despite all the lying it entails, Eleanor applies for—and gets—the gig, hoping to use it to uncover more about the family she never knew and the life she never had. All the while, Eleanor must navigate a sea of contradictions regarding her upbringing and her father's legacy. Surrounded by simulacra and juggling a web of lies and half-truths, Eleanor is a wholly believable protagonist whose personal challenges add depth and help propel the plot of this hopeful and timely story. Caletti (Plan A) combines a coming-of-age narrative with a buoyant summer romance and a technological mystery to craft an intriguing novel about figuring out one's place in the world. Eleanor and the Harrisons cue as white. Ages 14–up.