Margo Rabb

Edgar Award worthy.

Sixteen-year-old Lucy Clark has all but been abandoned by her globe-trotting self-help guru parents. First her nana raised her and when she passed away four years ago, Lucy was sent to boarding school at Thornton Academy in Austin, Texas, where she was bullied non-stop by so-called Thing One and Thing Two. Unfortunately, her retaliation, dubbed the capital I-Incident, against one of the Things went a bit too far and she was suspended.

To finish out the semester, the head show more mistress arranged for Lucy to assist an elderly eccentric millionaire with dementia, Edith Fox, in New York. Lucy will live with her cousin, Nanette, in Edith’s Greenwich Village building under strict supervision and guidelines set by her parents, among them doing mounds of homework and eating nothing frivolous or sugary. Her diet should consist mostly energy shakes sold by her parents’ company.

Upon her arrival in the Village, Nanette who was to meet Lucy at 4 PM, is nowhere to be seen. While waiting on the front stoop, Edith walks by, introduces herself, hands Lucy, who only has a learner’s permit, the keys to her car and tells her to drive. According to Edith, there was a man in a hooded jacket following her. Edith explains that someone is trying to kill her. At first, Lucy believes Edith does have dementia but after listening to Edith and her friend Mimsy, she is beginning to think Edith is telling the truth. Subsequent events confirm that, indeed, someone is trying to do away with Edith and no one is believing her.

Lucy, who feels like her life has been one gigantic screwup and who has not gotten over the death of her nana, believes she must be the one to uncover the would-be killer. She needs this for her self-worth.

There is so much about this book that I like, beginning with the cast of characters. Edith, Mimsy, Lucy and her friend, Dyna are just so loveable. Because Edith and Mimsy are horticulturalists, there is a lot about gardens and plants…especially poisonous ones. But you also learn how plants enhance one’s life and how persistent they are. The plot of the book is actually believable, which can be rare in a mystery. The tension builds until it reaches a satisfying conclusion.
One review said “Colorful characters, humorous situations, twists, red herrings, poison, family secrets—it’s all there.” Another said “A beguiling, cozy mystery worth sinking into.”
In addition to being a great mystery, Lucy Clark Will Not Apologize is also about family, grief and self-esteem, told in wonderful prose.

All in all, Lucy Clark Will Not Apologize is just a totally enjoyable book. It is perfect for fans of Maureen Johnson’s Truly Devious series. If your teen likes this, steer her to Truly Devious or vice versa. show less

Like Eva, the heroine of this book, I started reading romance novels at age 14, and at age 16 I had a brief relationship with a boy I met at our school's Model UN who lived 250 miles away. I thought we had found true love and that he could save me from my loneliness. He thought we had had a fun few days and that it was silly at our age to try to start something long-distance.

All of that background is to say that I could totally and painfully identify with Eva and the hopes she pinned on her show more relationship with Will, although the hole she was trying to fill was much deeper than mine. I thought the issues Eva encountered and the lessons she learned on her road trip to see Will again were realistic and interesting. And the final scenes set in California were hilarious, heartbreaking and hopeful.

Rabb's teenage characters are genuine and believable, which is what makes her portrayal of romance novels so bafflingly annoying. Has she ever actually read one? The fake examples she uses are completely absurd, full of purple prose that any decent romance novelist would eschew. She could have made her point about Eva escaping into romance novels without tearing down the entire genre.

The book loses half a star for dissing the romance novels I still love to read (although I have a much more realistic view of them almost 40 years later), but it regains it for the strong friendship between Eva and her best friend Annie, and the complex but loving relationship between Eva and her mother.

Ms. Rabb, let me know if you want a recommendation for some actual romance novels that have nary a "man-root" mention in them. show less

In the two years since her father died, sixteen-year-old Eva has found comfort in reading romance novels—118 of them, to be exact—to dull the pain of her loss that’s still so present. Her romantic fantasies become a reality when she meets Will, who seems to truly understand Eva’s grief. Unfortunately, after Eva falls head-over-heels for him, he picks up and moves to California without any warning. Not wanting to lose the only person who has been able to pull her out of sadness—and, show more perhaps, her shot at real love—Eva and her best friend, Annie, concoct a plan to travel to the west coast to see Will again. As they road trip across America, Eva and Annie confront the complex truth about love. show less

Don't be discouraged by the title, as this is a young adult novel that is more about the emotional journey of growing up as a teenager, than a mushy romance. Our heroine Eva has been struck by tragedy in that her father was on a plane that crashed into the ocean two years ago. The wreckage has never been found and as such, she and her mother lack closure. Her mother completely smothers Eva, so when she falls for the gorgeous Will who then subsequently moves to the other side of the country, show more Eva and her best friend Annie concoct a plan to allow Eva to travel to California by being Annie's lifeline in a new young adult trivia show. They travel by bus because Eva can't fly after what happened to her father and its cheaper. Only things don't quite go according to plan. Eva must endure her weird relatives and friends of her mother tagging along and also some bad news at the end of the line that causes her to let her one true friend down when it matters most. At times heartbreakingly sad and other times very funny, this is a novel I would recommend to older readers. It is essentially a book about family and friendship and not romantic love, but the love we have for those closest to us. show less