The Truth About White Lies
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
For fans of I'm Not Dying with You Tonight, this gripping YA novel digs into the historical and present-day effects of white supremacy and the depths of privilege.
Shania never thinks much about being white. But after her beloved grandmother passes, she moves to the gentrifying town of Blue Rock and is thrust into Bard, the city's wealthiest private school. At Bard, race is both invisible and hypervisible, and Shania's new friends are split on what they see. There's Catherine, the school's queen bee, who unexpectedly takes Shania under her wing. Then there's Prescott, the golden boy who seems perfect...except for the disturbing rumors about an altercation he had with a Black student who left the school.
But Prescott isn't the only one with secrets. As Shania grieves for the grandmother she idolized, she realizes her family roots stretch far back into Blue Rock's history. When the truth comes to light, Shania will have to make a choice and face the violence of her silence.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Following the death of her grandmother, 17-year-old white Shania Hester is uprooted from her rural life to the city of South Blue Rock, where her grandmother lived, to help her mother settle her affairs. There, Shania finds herself caught between new friend Michelle Broadus, who is Black, and popular white siblings Catherine and Prescott Tane. Shania is challenged to confront her unconscious bias toward the gentrifying community while repeatedly denying her white privilege. Tired of "walking through the minefield" of being white, Shania befriends the Tanes, who seemingly move through the world unaffected by the racial turmoil surrounding them. But after a devastating revelation threatens the image of both her grandmother and Prescott, Shania must acknowledge how her family's history affects her present, and choose to either return to the safety of ignorance or forge a new path forward. While Black characters suffer violence and are relegated to unwilling participants in Shania's journey, Cole (An Anatomy of Beasts) portrays Shania's justifications of racism, and her resistance to examine her privilege, with unapologetic gravity. Through astute narration, Cole thoughtfully unpacks the costly consequences of passivity in the face of racism and the "little white lies" told to maintain the status quo. Ages 14–up.
