Pest

by Elizabeth Foscue

Overview

High school senior Hallie Mayhew spends her days traipsing from one lavish Montecito estate to the next . . . spraying ant poison.

Between her dad’s pest control company, her mom’s pond cleaning service and her side gig at Caddysnack (Santa Barbara’s premier small plates and minigolf destination) Hal puts the “work” in working class. But Hal has qualms about gassing gophers. She’s tired of ditching friends to skim dead fish from fountains. And she’s freaking weary of divorced-parent politics. So Hal has a plan: win the prestigious Verhaag Scholarship, go to an east coast school, never come back.

But the Verhaag Scholarship has a proud history of nepotism and a last-minute contender just crawled out of the woodwork. Hal’s parking lot nemesis usurps Yearbook Committee, depriving Hal of her only extracurricular credit. Her Montecito clients are in a defensive frenzy over a rash of estate burglaries and, if her jobs keep making her tardy, she may not even graduate. To salvage her scholarship, Hal needs the help of Spencer Salazar, the dim, infuriating (and kinda hot) rich kid next door. To save her college prospects, she must restore the natural order of Yearbook Committee. To preserve her graduation eligibility, she needs a happy first period history teacher. And, ideally, she’ll avoid death by doberman. Now, in her non-existent spare time, Hal is adding private eye, matchmaker, and rat commando to her list of side gigs and wondering—maybe too late—if she misjudged the boy next door.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781684428144
Publisher:	Turner Publishing Company
Publication date:	04/05/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	6 MB
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

Elizabeth Foscue grew up in northwest Florida and the British Virgin Islands. She attended the University of Florida, where she majored in Linguistics and fleeing town on football weekends. She met her (now) husband at a sailing team meeting the second week of school and it was his idea to move to Annapolis, Maryland. She earned a J.D. and LL.M. from Georgetown University Law Center before escaping to SoCal after ten years of nasty, mid-Atlantic weather. Elizabeth lives in Santa Barbara, California with her husband, norrbottenspets (that’s Swedish for “barking fur-factory”) and two awesome kiddos.

Editorial Reviews

*One of Washington Post's 10 Noteworthy Books for April*

“Hal’s determination and drive add spice to the sweet story, while her work experiences pepper the tale with hilarity and incredulity. This is a great fit for a fun read.” —Seattle Book Review

“Laugh-out-loud funny . . . Cheering for this scrappy underdog will appeal to younger and older adults alike.” —Washington Post

 

“Foscue’s debut young-adult novel is bursting with humor and charm, and readers will enjoy following and rooting for Hallie as she tries to escape the many burdens of her world.” —Booklist

"I love underestimated outsiders who come out on top through wit and gumption, and Elizabeth Foscue delivers! Pest is a quirky, fast-paced YA read with a strong, self-determined protagonist, relatable characters, witty dialogue, and a satisfying ending." —USA Today bestselling author Kelly Stone Gamble

“With a charming nod to Veronica Mars, Foscue’s lively writing style and creative plot twists will keep those pages turning. And when you get to The End, you’ll want more.” —Robin Reardon, author of the Trailblazer series

“Wry, funny, and full of heart, Pest takes you on a nimble-footed tour of Santa Barbara’s ‘dark side,’ while remaining true to its coming-of-age roots. Recommended for readers who like their teen angst leavened with laughs.”—Bruce Hale, bestselling author of The Chet Gecko Mysteries and Clark the Shark

“Elizabeth Foscue’s coming-of age tale simply oozes charm. Locals will instantly recognize the incredibly detailed look at life in Santa Barbara (boy, you just can’t believe how accurate!), and all will be equally captivated by Pest’s Hal, and her spirited nature.” —Valerie R. Rice, author of Lush Life: Food & Drinks from the Garden 

“In Pest, Elizabeth Foscue portrays an insidiously wealthy enclave, crawling with teen drama and teeming with unwanted legged creatures lurking inside mansion walls....Ripe with socio-economic rifts and teen angst, the misunderstood girl next door, Hallie, presents a unique ‘most likely to succeed’ protagonist who isn’t afraid to face the task of college applications—or pick up dead critters along the way. A YA read that is both entertaining and intriguing.”—Liz Ruckdeschel, author of the What If… series

From the Publisher

A wide range of listeners will empathize with high school senior Hallie Mayhew’s complicated home life. To escape, she’s developed a detailed plan to win a scholarship to a university thousands of miles away. Her hope to get away from both of her divorced, fighting parents isn’t surprising, but her plan to leave her nagging, shrill mother and quit her job with her grumpy father is threatened when a rival for the scholarship appears. Tyla Collier portrays Hallie with enthusiasm, making her a believable, intelligent young woman. The tribulations she suffers are capably rendered. Overall, Collier’s narration captures the emotions of the characters, as well as their humor. E.J.F. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2022 - AudioFile

2022-01-11
High school senior Hallie plans to attend college by winning a prestigious local scholarship, but unforeseen circumstances jeopardize her dreams.

Hallie thought she knew all the rules governing the Verhaag Scholarship, which is awarded to the Santa Barbara High School student who writes the best research paper about famed poet Robert W. Service, rumored to have been intimately connected with family matriarch Augusta Verhaag. But it turns out she didn’t. Some fine print—and the award committee’s reputation for nepotism—mean that to have a fighting chance she must encourage another classmate to apply while hustling to find an extracurricular activity to round out her college applications. Hallie also continues working many hours at her father’s pest control company to earn money. While detailed information about rodents and insects is made genuinely interesting, the rest of the novel is a plod through three slow-moving subplots: machinations to win the scholarship; a romance with Spencer, the boy next door; and a search for last year’s yearbook supplements that were supposedly stolen by a boy who refuses to let her join the yearbook staff. Hallie’s voice has an authentic, often snarky, ring and her pluck is admirable. However, supporting characters are thinly drawn, and the novel is unevenly paced, gets bogged down in irrelevant details, and ends abruptly. All major characters are presumed White; Spencer is cued as Latinx.

An interesting premise and engaging protagonist let down by overall execution. (Fiction. 13-18)

Kirkus Reviews