TELL ME THREE THINGS

Jorjeana Marie’s gift for embodying teens shines in this character-driven audiobook. Seventeen-year-old Jessie is still grieving her mother’s death when her father moves the two of them to Los Angeles to live with his new wife and family. Jessie is enrolled in a private school where she knows no one. Almost instantly she becomes the object of mean-girl bullying, her stepbrother’s resentment, and peer dynamics she doesn’t understand. Marie portrays Jessie’s uncertainty when she begins to receive anonymous texts from “Somebody Nobody” (SN), who promises to act as her “virtual spirit guide.” Depicting the seeming realness of this virtual relationship as well as the insecurity and anger beneath Jessie’s snarky front, Marie fully captures Jessie’s attempts to sort out past feelings, present truths, crushes, and real love. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2016]