This
month I review a new novel by Gail Giles titled RIGHT BEHIND YOU,
about a boy who lives in secret and is trying to resurrect a normal
life in the wake of a horrible crime he committed years before. I
also had a chance to read and review LOOKING FOR JJ, about a girl
who is living under an assumed name and trying to create a normal
life for herself in the wake of a horrible crime she committed as a
child. Sounds familiar, right?

Actually, the surprising thing about these two novels (which have
been published in such close proximity) is how dissimilar they
feel. RIGHT BEHIND YOU is both less suspenseful and more
psychological than LOOKING FOR JJ. Its protagonist's crime is
explained in the very first chapter, his motivations are never in
question and the main source of conflict is whether or not the main
character will be able to overcome his own self-destructive urges
in his quest for a new life.

However, LOOKING FOR JJ (which was first published in the United
Kingdom in 2004), is both more sympathetic to its heroine and more
invested in exploring the circumstances that might cause a very
young girl to commit a truly horrific crime. We first meet Alice
Tully, a 17-year-old who works at the local coffee shop, lives with
her kindly guardian Rosie and enjoys spending time with her
boyfriend while waiting to begin university in a year.

Only gradually do readers learn that Alice is actually Jennifer
Johnson (known as JJ), a recently released convict who has spent
several years in prison following a terrible crime she committed as
a young girl. The exact nature of JJ's crime is kept a secret,
revealed only gradually through flashbacks that make known JJ's
dysfunctional relationship with her mother, her troubled
friendships and her increasingly violent behavior in the wake of a
series of disappointments. Meanwhile, in the present, Alice and
Rosie are desperate to keep her new identity intact, to protect
Alice from the prying eyes and devastating words of the tabloid
newspapers and give her a chance at a new start.

LOOKING FOR JJ is structured as a more typical suspense novel than
RIGHT BEHIND YOU, as readers' sense of sympathy for JJ and horror
at her actions mount simultaneously. Some American readers
initially may have a difficult time grasping the extent of the
viciousness of the British tabloid press and the hold it has over
Alice's new life, but soon they will gain an understanding.

Lacking the interiority, emphasis on therapy and focus on anger
that formed much of the plot of RIGHT BEHIND YOU, LOOKING FOR JJ
nevertheless can be fruitfully read side by side with Giles's book.
Both novels raise similar questions about the ability of young
offenders to make fresh starts, if it's ever possible to have a
truly clean slate. The startlingly different ways in which their
authors raise these questions, and how they answer them, result in
rich, dramatically contrasting reading experiences that could be
the focus of interesting small group discussions.

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