conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me a description for a story titled The Truth Beneath the Lies about Betsy, Kayla's, UpKayla with the genre: Teen & Young Adult, Literature & Fiction.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Gr 9 UpKayla wants to escape her life with her former-addict mother in subsidized housing and her job at the grocery store. She wants out, despite the fact that she has managed to fit in fairly well with her dance team and a popular group at school. Betsy is terrified. She is starting over in a completely new town and is inexplicably tied to a cell phone she hides under her bed. These two stories are told in alternating chapters detailing Kayla's intensifying interest in and involvement with the mysterious disappearances of local girls, and Betsy's attempts to extricate herself from the terrifying man at the other end of the cell phone. Kayla's narrative reveals her history in foster care and her desire for an older, dangerous man as the mystery ramps up, while Betsy is convinced that the world around her is dangerous while she is trying to fit into her new environment. The dual narratives converge with the ultimate reveal about how Kayla and Betsy are connected. The prose is terse and overly dramatic in places, which fits the genre's trappings, but the big reveal is predictable and will be easily deduced by savvy readers. VERDICT Recommended for large high school library collections, especially those with a base of suspense/thriller fans who are not quite ready for Gone Girl.Kate Olson, Bangor School District, WI
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me the first five paragraphs for this story.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The Truth Beneath the Lies
  His hand doesn't move fast. It's almost as if he wants me to run away, like chasing me would make it all the sweeter. I don't run. I stand tall in front of him.
  The gun points at my heart. At the carp. It has a silencer on the end like in the movies. "I don't have liabilities."
  I crack one eye open. Everything aches. My chest, my head. My leg is asleep. I try to breathe. Inflating my lungs makes my whole upper body scream.
  I raise an eyebrow—just about the only motion that doesn't hurt—at the figure leaning over me. I snort.
  He laughs. "What? You've met me, right? You think no one has ever taken a shot at me?" Weathers pulls aside the neck of his shirt to expose the strap of a bulletproof vest. "Never leave home without it."
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me four more paragraphs.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: I sigh. "Teddy, stop," I say loud enough to send a shock wave of pain through my upper body. But he doesn't snap out of it until Football Player runs into the room and pulls him off Weathers.
  I try to sit up, but the pain forces me down again. "It was my idea," I say to the ceiling. "We had to get the Koi to come out into the open. Weathers broadcasted a message that I was still alive. We knew the Koi wouldn't be able to resist coming after me."
  I had to finish it. Weathers was going to get even more people killed hunting down the Koi. This wasn't about my life or safety. It was about all those future children. The future Jordans. The future Kaylas.
  Weathers stands up and produces a handkerchief from the pocket of his suit coat. He dabs his lip. "Just so you know, I had a nice home picked out for the little girl. An agent and his wife in Los Angeles. She would have had everything. She would have been loved."
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Delete the last sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: I sigh. "Teddy, stop," I say loud enough to send a shock wave of pain through my upper body. But he doesn't snap out of it until Football Player runs into the room and pulls him off Weathers.
  I try to sit up, but the pain forces me down again. "It was my idea," I say to the ceiling. "We had to get the Koi to come out into the open. Weathers broadcasted a message that I was still alive. We knew the Koi wouldn't be able to resist coming after me."
  I had to finish it. Weathers was going to get even more people killed hunting down the Koi. This wasn't about my life or safety. It was about all those future children. The future Jordans. The future Kaylas.
  Weathers stands up and produces a handkerchief from the pocket of his suit coat. He dabs his lip. "Just so you know, I had a nice home picked out for the little girl. An agent and his wife in Los Angeles. She would have had everything. She would have been loved.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me the last five paragraphs.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: He doesn't say anything else. He's silent for so long that I'm afraid he's done. That he's going to march away and never speak to me again.
  Adrian's brown eyes flash, like maybe he's suppressing a smile. He takes my hand. "Nice to meet you, Betsy."
  Over his shoulder, I catch a reflection in the window of the mobile home. I see a girl staring back at me. A girl who's been scarred and battered and hurt. A girl who will have to relearn how to trust and love. A girl who will get up and try again.
  I am also eternally grateful to Bonnie Bryant for reading everything I foist upon her and for being my biggest cheerleader. And to Kelly Darnell who was an early beta reader.
  Thank you to Bonnie Hearn Hill for believing so strongly in me when I first began walking down this path. And to Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen for all the aha moments and for being a role model for writers everywhere.