Beware That Girl

by Teresa Toten Narrated by Jorjeana Marie

Overview

For fans of We Were Liars, A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, Two Can Keep a Secret, and If He Had Been With Me comes a powerful psychological thriller with a gripping pace and Hitchcockian twists. Set against the backdrop of New York City, this compelling novel delves into the dysfunctional yet mesmerizing world of the mega-wealthy elite and will keep readers guessing until the very last page.

The Haves. The Have-Nots. Kate O'Brien appears to be a Have-Not. Her whole life has been a series of setbacks she's had to snake her way out of-some more sinister than others. But she's determined to change all that. She's book-smart. She's street-smart. And she's also a masterful liar. As the scholarship student at the elite Waverly School in NYC, Kate has her work cut out for her: her plan is to climb the social ranks and land a spot at Yale. She's already found her “people” among the senior-class “it” girls-specifically in the cosseted, mega-wealthy yet deeply damaged Olivia Sumner. As for Olivia, she considers Kate the best friend she's always needed, the sister she never had.
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When the handsome and whip-smart Mark Redkin joins the Waverly administration as head of fund-raising, he immediately charms his way into the faculty's and students' lives, becoming especially close to Olivia, a fact she's intent on keeping to herself. It becomes increasingly obvious that Redkin poses a threat to Kate, too, in a way she can't reveal-and can't afford to ignore. Mark has his own plan for a bright future and never doubts that he can pull it off. How close can Kate and Olivia get to him without having to share their dark pasts?
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“Combines a Gossip Girl milieu with the unsettled psychological terrain of Gone Girl.” -PW
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“It's smart, dark, entertaining, and unpredictable.” -Quill & Quire, Starred

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Audio

08/29/2016
After surviving a horrific and traumatic childhood, Kate went through foster care and has now landed as a scholarship student at the elite Waverly School. Having learned to be cunning and opportunistic in order to survive, she targets Olivia, a rich girl with emotional problems, and becomes her best friend, manipulating Olivia into inviting her to live in her mansion and enjoy the finer things in life. But Kate begins to genuinely care about Olivia, and when a handsome, charming, slick sexual predator named Mark Redkin gets a high-level job at the school and begins to victimize Olivia, Kate is determined to save her friend. Reader Marie creates the perfect voice for each character—a growly, jaded, sardonic tone for Kate (which becomes sweet and polite when sucking up to teachers and counselors); a high-pitched, naïve-sounding voice for Olivia; a deep, smooth, seductive voice for Mark. Marie’s expert narration keeps the tension and suspense high and will have listeners riveted as dark secrets are revealed and the plot takes unexpected twists and turns, leading to a shocking conclusion. Ages 14–up. A Delacorte hardcover. (May)

Publishers Weekly

02/29/2016
Kate O’Brian is a good liar when she has to be, and because of her violent past, that’s most of the time. She’s also good at making “demented rich girls” love her, which is how she goes from sleeping in a storeroom under a Chinatown market to sharing Olivia Sumner’s penthouse apartment during the girls’ senior year at New York City’s posh Waverly School. Toten (The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B) switches between Kate’s first-person account and a third-person look at Olivia, who has secrets of her own. The other plot engine is charismatic Waverly fund-raiser Mark Redkin, who is working on bedding most of the staff and some of the seniors. When Olivia’s turn comes, readers realize that he is far worse than just a hound. As the title suggests, the book combines a Gossip Girl milieu with the unsettled psychological terrain of Gone Girl. But while Kate is a strong character and there is no shortage of suspense, Toten’s desire to keep readers guessing results in a confusing and rushed climax. Ages 14–up. Agent: Marie Campbell, Transatlantic Literary Agency. (May)

From the Publisher

"Combines a Gossip Girl milieu with the unsettled psychological terrain of Gone Girl."—PW

"Has all the makings of a crossover hit. It's smart, dark, entertaining, and unpredictable."—Quill & Quire, STARRED

"A sharp narative whose twists will demand an instant reread. Beware That Girl is a terrifying chess game, and Toten is the ultimate player."—National Reading Campaign (Canada)

"A tense teen thriller."—Kirkus

"The author skillfully reveals gritty and tantalizing details in meager bites, keeping readers captivated. A must-have for teen fans of psychological thrillers such as Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl."—SLJ

"A solid page-turner with two compelling main characters. Readers will be absorbed by this gripping, sometimes disturbing drama."—The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

School Library Journal

05/01/2016
Gr 10 Up—Street smart and already world-weary, 17-year-old Kate is an admitted liar. She lies with the goal of one day attending Yale University, her dream school. As a new scholarship student at the prestigious Waverly School in New York, she relies heavily on her smarts, good looks, and experience to get by. Kate searches for a target, someone to befriend who has influence and money. She spots Olivia, a beautiful and rich girl who missed a year of school because of a mystery illness. Kate moves into Olivia's absent father's penthouse, with only a housekeeper as parental guidance. The friendship blossoms, until a mysterious man, Mark Redkin, enters their lives. The handsome Mark charms Olivia, but Kate senses that there is something terribly wrong. She discovers that he is a dangerous psychopath with a past as dark and carefully concealed as Kate's and Olivia's. Alternating chapters between the two teens keep the story fresh and make readers feel privy to secrets. Kate's tragic history is revealed with flashbacks. The plot develops at a steady pace until the game being played among all three characters finally blows up with tragedy and murder. In this book for older teens, the author skillfully reveals gritty and tantalizing details in meager bites, keeping readers captivated. VERDICT Complete with a disturbing yet satisfying conclusion, this is a must-have for teen fans of psychological thrillers such as Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl.—Mindy Hiatt, Salt Lake County Library Services

MAY 2016 - AudioFile

Jorjeana Marie performs two complicated narrative voices that tangle and then harmonize as this audiobook progresses. Kate O’Brien, a senior on scholarship at a wealthy Manhattan school, is determined to go to Harvard, and she’ll do anything to get there. That includes befriending popular, wealthy Olivia Sumner, whom she chooses more as a mark than a BFF. Marie delivers Kate’s savvy and snark in a way that engages listeners despite her unsavory underside. Snooty Olivia is equally attractive. So is the gorgeous new administrator, Mr. Redkin, who wants an alliance with both girls—for unclear reasons. Marie conveys all the tension that holds listeners in the grip of this psychological suspense. S.W. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2016-03-02
Predators become prey in this private school novel. Kate O'Brien is the new scholarship student at Waverly Academy in New York City, but she's also a seasoned con artist armed with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, and she intends to do anything and use anyone in order to get away from her past and into Yale. Kate targets Olivia Sumner in order to get out of poverty and in with the popular girls, but she finds her cold calculations tempered by friendship. Kate's first-person narration proudly details her manipulative methods (with flashbacks to a traumatic childhood that offers motive), while the third-person voice in Olivia's chapters goes from detached to disjointed as she pops Ativan like Altoids but slowly spills her secrets. Kate and Olivia, both white, think they can swim with the sharks, yet both are outclassed when a man complicates matters, and only Kate can see the sociopath beneath the suave charm. Shallowly drawn schoolmates are also saddled with enough psychological issues to fill Kate's beloved DSM but otherwise fulfill rich-girl, private school stereotypes and provide background color. Toten's use of sexual predation and parental abuse as plot devices is problematic, but she also delivers a social-climbing satire with a ridiculous resolution, making for a reading experience that feels simultaneously riveting and like rubbernecking. A tense teen thriller that is half mind-game, half misery lit—call it 50 Shades of Grey Area. (Thriller. 14-18)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169266184
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	05/31/2016
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

9780553507904|excerpt

Toten / BEWARE THAT GIRL

Tuesday, March 22

Kate and Olivia

Neither girl moved. The young blonde on the bed didn’t move because she couldn’t, and the blonde in the chair didn’t because, well, it seemed that she couldn’t either.

Two doctors, a nurse and an orderly barged in, disturbing their silence. They lifted the body in the bed using a sheet, changed the bedding, checked her pulse and heart rate, tapped, touched and shone lights into unseeing eyes. This time they removed the long cylindrical tube that had been taped to the girl’s mouth. The withdrawal of the tube was ugly.

The body seized, arced and then spasmed.

When they left, the girl in the chair resumed her vigil numbed by the reek of ammonia and latex. The doctors never told her anything, so she’d stopped asking. The bedridden girl was attached to a tangled mess of tubes and wires. They led from her battered body to several monitors and a single pole that branched out like a steel tree blooming with bags of IV fluid. Things beeped and hummed on a random timetable that neither girl heard. In the forty-­eight hours since their arrival, the girl in the chair rarely broke her vigil to stretch, sleep or go to the bathroom. Her normally perfect blonde hair clung to her scalp, greased darker now with sweat, mud and dried blood.

She sat spellbound by the monitors, by the ever-­changing colored dots, the indecipherable graphs and especially the wavy green line. The green line was important. She didn’t waver, not in all those hours—not until Detective Akimoto cleared his throat in the doorway. She struggled to meet his eyes.

“I’m sorry, but I’m going to need you to step outside for a moment.”

The girl turned to her friend, whose mouth was red and angry from where the tape had been ripped away.

The detective flipped open a small black notepad.

He clicked his pen several times.

“Now, please.”

Other men were outside, milling about the corridor. Cops.

“We have a few questions about your friend, and also about a . . . Mr. Marcus Redkin.”

Mark.

She rose slowly. The room swayed in the effort. “Yes, sir.” She stole one more glance at the wavy green line.

The girl on the bed was no longer inert, not entirely. But no one saw. Words fell out of her mouth, silently slipping off the sheets and onto the ground.

But no one heard.

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