Review of Reconstructing Amelia

  Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight is a novel about acceptance, bullying, and friendship.

            Reconstructing Amelia dramatically begins with the title character already being dead, but her mother Kate suspects otherwise when she receives a mysterious text that says “Amelia didn’t kill herself”.  The story follows Kate as she tries to unravel the mystery behind her daughter’s death, and the events of Amelia’s life that lead to it.   

            Kate believes her daughter to be a good student, who loves reading, and is a loyal friend, but learns through Amelia’s texts and emails that she had been involved with a group that ruined her reputation.   Amelia had been “tapped” to join “The Magpie’s”, a popular group of “mean girls” at her private school, led by Zadie.  Kate finds out about all the things Amelia had to do such as pull pranks on teachers and allow inappropriate pictures of herself to be taken. 

            Over all, this book was a good book and an exciting read. It teaches us what can result from bullying and what the consequences of our actions can create if we aren’t careful.  The writing style was fast paced and easy to read.  Even if the actions of the characters were ridiculous as a reader you could not help, but want to piece together the mystery of Reconstructing Amelia. 

            The plot also deals with the important social issue of homosexuality and how it affects people.  Amelia is revealed to be a lesbian and falls in love with Dylan, a friend of Zadie’s, but Zadie, being territorial of Dylan, does not like this.  It’s not indicated Zadie is homosexual, but her territorial nature with Dylan and how controlling she is makes for an intriguing character. 

            Both Amelia and Kate’s insecurities and fears are very relatable.  Amelia’s confusion about her sexuality happens a lot to teens whether a teenager is homosexual or heterosexual.  Your teen years are when you start developing sexually and that is part of Amelia’s journey.

             Kate’s importance she places on her job as a lawyer and false assumptions that her daughter is okay is relatable as well.  Teens do not voluntarily share what is going on in their social lives and not all parents ask.  Kate’s reactions are realistic to how any parent would react to the realization that they weren’t there for their child, resulting in the child’s death.

            The novel is told, not only from two perspectives, but also through different forms of communication.  The readers see images of emails and texts that occur between the characters.  Not only is this a creative way to tell the story, but it demonstrates how quickly the conflict unravels.  With its mature content, such as the foul language and the reference to nude pictures being posted on the internet it is not for teens under the age of sixteen.