FICTION

The Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs

St. Martin's. Sept. 2015. 240p. ISBN 9781250006301. $24.99; ebk. ISBN 9781466886322. F
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It all starts with the F-bomb. Quiet, shy pushover Caroline has had enough. Her expletive is directed straight at the PTO president Mrs. Denali, who has been passive-aggressively calling out the parents for not pulling their weight in volunteering. The next day, while Caroline considers how best to apologize to Mrs. Denali, she receives a phone call from the high school. Her 15-year-old daughter Polly has a much stronger backbone; she's been suspended for punching, of all people, Mrs. Denali's daughter. On a whim, Caroline decides to break her daughter out of school to drive to her hometown. She hopes to confront her childhood best friend Emily Kaplan, who humiliated her one day in the school cafeteria 25 years ago, forever changing the trajectory of Caroline's life, or so she thinks. Caroline has placed a great deal of emphasis on her best friend's betrayal and is now ready to stand up to her bully. But mustering that courage doesn't come easy.
VERDICT Dicks's fourth novel (after Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend) is for anyone who has wished they'd stood up for themselves or delivered that perfect comeback at just the right time. [See Prepub Alert, 3/23/15.]
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