In The Neighborhood of True is a new young adult historical fiction novel by Susan Kaplan Carlton that will be published tomorrow, and I think it’s an important read for those young adults in our lives. Set in 1958, it follows Ruth Robb as she moves with her mother and younger sister from NYC to Atlanta, after the death of her father. Ruth is shallow and wonderful, and your average teenage girl, except she’s a Jew living in the prejudiced south. There’s so much I want to say about this book, but I’m not sure where to even start. It deals with topics such as popularity, death of a parent, first love, segregation, religion, racism, violence, and more, and it does so gracefully.

What happens when you try to hide who you are in order to be popular? What happens when you tell stories “in the neighborhood of true” and those white-lies come back to haunt you? What happens when violence breaks out? What do you do, and whose side do you take? Can you stay true to who you really are?

I loved what the author is trying to accomplish, and in general, In The Neighborhood of True is a sweet and smart read. I personally wasn’t a fan of the way Carlton framed the novel, and that ended up making it fall a little flat for me, but I think that the target audience would enjoy it and find it fascinating and insightful.

Thanks, Algonguin Books for sending me an ARC via NetGalley in order to facilitate this review!