About This Book
Reach for this book when your teenager is fascinated by high stakes mysteries or feels pressured to maintain a perfect, unemotional facade. It is a gripping thriller that follows sixteen year old Tandy Angel as she investigates the sudden death of her parents while being a primary suspect herself. Beyond the murder mystery, the story explores the psychological effects of a demanding, hyper competitive upbringing and the struggle to reclaim one's own identity from a controlling family environment. Parents should choose this book for older readers who enjoy fast paced puzzles but are also ready to engage with heavier themes of emotional manipulation and complex family dynamics. It serves as an excellent entry point for discussing how our pasts shape our current self image and the importance of emotional honesty. Due to some mature elements including drug references and intense family secrets, it is best suited for ages twelve and up.
What Parents Should Know
Sensitive Topics
DISTRESS: There are clinical and detached descriptions of the crime scene and the parents' bodies. The psychological manipulation of the children by the parents is significant: the children were essentially treated as lab subjects, including the use of experimental drugs to enhance performance or suppress emotions. There is a scene involving a character's suicide and several mentions of a past fatal accident involving a boyfriend. CONVERSATION: Parents should be prepared to discuss the ethics of performance enhancing drugs and the difference between healthy parental expectations and psychological abuse. You may also need to discuss the concept of repressed memories and how trauma affects the brain.
Ideal Reader
A middle or high schooler who enjoys Sherlock Holmes style deduction but wants a contemporary, gritty edge. It is perfect for the child who feels the weight of high expectations.
Parent Prep
Preview the chapters regarding 'The Pills' and the parents' medical experiments on the children to ensure your child can handle the theme of medical betrayal. A child may ask: Is it okay to keep secrets from the police if it protects my family?
Age Experience
Younger teens will focus on the 'whodunit' and the cool factor of the Dakota building. Older teens will pick up on the disturbing nature of the parents' control and the protagonist's unreliable narration.
What Makes It Special
Unlike many YA mysteries, the detective here is also a suspect who doesn't trust her own mind. It blends hard boiled noir with a psychological study of a 'perfect' family gone wrong.
Read plot summary
Tandy Angel and her three siblings are trapped in their luxury Manhattan apartment, under investigation for the murder of their parents. Tandy, who has been raised to suppress all emotion in the pursuit of perfection, decides to conduct her own investigation. As she peels back the layers of her parents' pharmaceutical empire and their hedge fund dealings, she uncovers dark secrets about her own past and her parents' manipulative experiments on their children.
This overview was generated by AI based on the book's content and reviews, and may not capture every nuance.
Discussion Prompts
1
Tandy's parents raised her to believe that emotions are a weakness. How does this belief help her or hurt her as she investigates their murder?
2
As Tandy uncovers more about her parents' secrets, her own memories start to return. Why do you think her mind buried those specific events for so long?
3
Throughout the book, the Angel children are treated as suspects. Which sibling did you trust the least, and did your opinion change by the end?
4
The Dakota building is almost like a character in the story. How does the setting of a high security, luxury apartment affect the feeling of the mystery?
5
If Tandy had been raised in a 'normal' family without the pressure for perfection, do you think she would have been able to solve the case?
