Now+You+See+Her

Life imitates art as Hope tells a story of falling in love with her (onstage and real-life) Romeo, Logan. They have to keep their romance a secret for many reasons, so Hope becomes consumed with their clandestine meetings. Together, they make what Hope calls The Plan. They'll move to L.A. or New York, waiting tables and auditioning for the roles that will make them stars, and then get married. The Plan, however, starts to crumble when Logan asks the question that engenders The Idea: "What would you say your parents think you're worth?"

The Idea is for Logan and Hope to fake Hope's kidnapping and get about $20,000 in ransom money from Hope's parents, enough for them to start on The Plan. Logan will "find" Hope and be considered a hero. But when Hope goes through with The Plan, staging her own kidnapping without Logan, we begin to see that all is not right in Hope's mind. Is she really in love with Logan, or is it more an unrequited obsession? Where do her lies begin and end?

Hope's journal is a passionate, frightening look at the destructive power of mental illness. In her story, she is both the heroine and the victim, while everyone else is the villain. Since we readers only see Hope's side of the story, we are led to believe that Hope is the stage star with the perfect boyfriend --- the person she not only wants to be, but would like everyone else to believe she already is. As in Chris Lynch's INEXCUSABLE and Gail Giles's DEAD GIRLS DON'T WRITE LETTERS, we have no choice but to follow an unreliable narrator down a path of deceit, confusion and, ultimately, the bitter truth.