Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight

Kate couldn’t believe her eyes.  Still deeply grieving the suicide of her daughter Amelia who jumped off her school’s roof, the incoming text seemed like a sick joke.  Yet it also confirmed what Kate believed in her heart: her beautiful fifteen-year old, a gifted writer and bright spirit, would never have committed suicide.

Determined to get at the truth, Kate starts sifting through the detritus of her daughter’s social life – old texts, emails, Facebook updates, and a chilling, anonymous blog that dishes hateful gossip about the students and teachers at Amelia’s school, Grace Hall.  References to a secret all girls club, The Magpies, a group known for their cruel hazing and bullying, seem to hold the key to the secret of Amelia’s last days.  Most disturbing for Kate is her growing certainty, after putting the clues together, that a secret from her own past, one she kept hidden from Amelia, was the trigger for Amelia’s tragic death.

Told through blog posts, texts, Facebook updates, and Kate and Amelia’s own stories, Reconstructing Amelia is terrific thriller with twists and turns and a wonderful can’t-put-it-down addictiveness that’s just right for summer reading.