Complicit

Starred review from March 31, 2014
Jamie and Cate were adopted by the wealthy Henry family after their single mother was murdered—or maybe it was an accidental death. Younger sibling Jamie isn’t sure anymore. Jamie has worked hard to overcome his anxiety-ridden youth, and he’s doing well until Cate is released from jail after serving time for burning down a barn, killing several horses and badly burning another girl. Even more troubling, Jamie is suffering from debilitating neurological attacks that paralyze his arms and is losing track of long periods of time, all of which seems to be connected to his fears about Cate’s return. Believing there’s a secret in his past, Jamie searches for answers about his mother’s life and his turbulent childhood with Cate. Kuehn’s second novel, after her Morris Award–winning Charm & Strange, powerfully examines how mental illness can turn into family tragedy that ripples far and wide beyond a single event. The prose is as hallucinatory as the madness Jamie seeks to uncover in a novel that’s tense and ambiguous from start to finish. Ages 13–up. Agent: Michael Bourret, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management.

May 1, 2014
A bright, conflicted hero struggles to free himself from the past's tightening bonds in this corkscrew of a thriller.After their troubled young mother's death in an accidental shooting, Jamie and Cate were adopted by loving, affluent parents in Danville, Calif., themselves still grieving the loss of their two biological children in a car accident. The kids respond differently to their comfortably sheltered existence. Jamie becomes a high-performing student and talented pianist, while Cate, still passionately loyal to the mother Jamie barely remembers, grows into a wild, reckless teen. Released two years after her incarceration for burning down a neighbor's barn, killing horses and critically maiming a classmate, Cate's heading for Danville, and Jamie's terrified of what she'll do next. Years of treatment with a sympathetic therapist haven't helped him overcome his bouts of amnesia and, when severely stressed, the loss of sensation in his hands. With his first romance on the horizon, he's stopped taking his meds, which have deadening side effects. Vivid characterization and Jamie's sharply observed narration lend credibility to the proceedings and divert attention from a few holes in the logic. In the service of her plot, Kuehn takes liberties with current child welfare practices (some may take issue with the skewed portrait of older-child adoption), but her strong suit-building suspense-is bound to keep even skeptical readers turning pages.Smart, gripping genre fiction. (Thriller. 14-18)

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Starred review from May 1, 2014

Gr 9 Up-Fifteen-year-old Jamie Henry is haunted by muddled memories of his childhood and by a tragic fire at a neighborhood horse barn. Everyone in their upscale suburban town, including Jamie, believes that the fire was started by his damaged and wild older sister, Cate, who has a reputation for drinking and stealing. But at the opening of Kuehn's intense novel, Cate returns from a juvenile detention center, and it becomes clear that the truth is far more complicated. From the first day of his sister's dramatic arrival, Jamie's life begins to spiral out of control. An excellent student and "good" boy, the teen has always considered Cate to be the troubled one. She causes heartache and worry for their well-meaning adoptive parents, and she is known for manipulating her friends. Cate is unreliable, but Jamie needs her. He needs to know what really happened the night of the fire. And he wants to learn about their young mother who died under mysterious circumstances. Following clues to an increasingly complex puzzle, the protagonist slowly begins to piece his past together. He has the support of several other characters, especially his therapist and his new girlfriend, both of whom give readers a more nuanced and sympathetic view of his struggle. Alternating between past and present, Kuehn sustains the tension through first-person narration and revealing flashbacks. Complicit ensnares readers from the first page with its surprising twists and revelations. Recommend it to fans of psychological thrillers.-Shelley Sommer, Inly School, Scituate, MA

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 15, 2014
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Cate is out of juvie. For her little brother, 17-year-old Jamie, that's bad. It's been two years since Cate horribly injured a rival by setting a barn on fire. This was the last in a long series of tempestuous, violent acts Cate committed since she and Jamie were adopted following the murder of their mother. With Cate locked up, Jamie is almost a whole being: his periodic bouts of memory loss, yanking of his own hair, and idiopathic cataplexy (the total numbness of his hands) have receded, and he's got those hands full, literally, with a lusty new girlfriend. But Cate's return brings everything flooding back, not only the physical ailments but the memories, some of which have been buriedburied deep, and for good reason. Kuehn writes with the fleetness of a trained thriller author, blending past and present (not to mention psychology and action) with the same fluidity as in her Morris Awardwinning debut, Charm & Strange (2013). Her confidence is what's so invigorating: every page shows a firm, surprising choice, whether you like it or not. Cate, naturally, is the main event, the alternatingly irrational, gentle, explosive, and enigmatic center of this fast, black whirlpool of a novel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2014
Anxious, medicated fifteen-year-old Jamie suffers idiopathic cataplexy (unexplained numbness) when his sister is released from juvie. Cate had been convicted of setting a barn fire, and Jamie has only fragments of memories from the time prior to their mother's murder. Although readers will recognize early on that he's an unreliable narrator, the extent of Jamie's self-deception when ultimately revealed is staggering.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2014
Kuehn (Charm & Strange, rev. 11/13) again explores childhood trauma, mental illness, and the slipperiness of memory -- this time from a very different perspective. Anxious, medicated fifteen-year-old Jamie suffers idiopathic cataplexy (unexplained numbness) when he learns that his volatile older sister Cate has been released from juvie. This isn't the first time Jamie's gone numb, physically and emotionally; his cataplexy first started two years ago when he heard about the barn fire Cate was later convicted of setting, and he has only fragments of memories from the time surrounding the fire and from his childhood prior to their young single mother's murder. Flashbacks to these times show glimpses of an unexpected side of Jamie: manipulative and prone to violent rage. Jamie's need to fill in the many gaps in his memory (spurred by taunting phone calls from Cate) leads him to the social services officer who handled his case, the slum apartment where he grew up, a cache of hidden evidence, and eventually to a confrontation with Cate in which the truth about their mother's death, the fire, and Cate's arrest comes to light. Although readers will recognize early on that Jamie is an unreliable narrator, the extent of his self-deception when ultimately revealed is staggering -- and may prompt readers to immediately flip back to the beginning, searching for the many subtle clues that build to the shocking conclusion. katie bircher

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)