Jem Halliday is in Love with Her Best Friend.
It doesn't matter that Kai is gay, or that he'll never look at her the same way she looks at him. Their friendship is all she needs. But when Kai is outed online by one of their classmates, he does the unthinkable: he commits suicide.
Jem's world is shattered. All she has left of her best friend are twelve letters—one for each month of the year—he wrote her before he died. Kai's letters beg her not to investigate what happened, but Jem can't let it go. She needs to know who did this, and she'll stop at nothing to find the person responsible for Kai's death. One way or another, someone is going down. Someone is going to pay...
"I haven't felt so much for a book since If I Stay by Gayle Forman."—Confessions of a Book Addict
"Undone is a story that will stick with me for a long time."—Book Passion for Life
Gr 9 Up—Jem and Kai have been best friends since childhood. Even though Kai is gay, Jem is in love with him. They are perfectly happy with their codependent relationship until they attend a party with the popular crowd their junior year. Both teens drink and find themselves in precarious situations. Kai's indiscretion is filmed and sent via email to all the students at school; now everyone knows he is gay. Unable to handle the humiliation, Kai commits suicide. Jem is devastated, but she realizes he has written her 12 notes to be opened each month. She craves her best friend's words. In the meantime, the protagonist has a plan. She infiltrates the cool group to find out who filmed Kai in order to exact revenge. Jem struggles with actually liking her new friends, wanting to commit suicide herself, and seeking out the perpetrator. These conflicts take a toll on her, and the fluctuating mood of the story reflects her own ups and downs. The narrator's tale is punctuated with Kai's letters and flashbacks to Jem's past. Clarke depicts authentic teen characters who speak with crude realistic language; some American readers may have trouble understanding the British slang and idioms. Issues such as rape, family, and betrayal are also explored. The author's inconsistent use of animal imagery, as Jem compares the popular people to animals they emulate, may deter some readers, but most will want to experience Jem's journey to its morbid, twisty end.—Jeni Tahaney, Duncanville High School Library, TX
After being outed online, Jem’s best friend Kai commits suicide, and Jem doesn’t see any reason not to join him. Then she receives a package of 12 letters from Kai with instructions to read one a month. “Move forward with your life and kick the world in its balls,” he instructs, and Jem knows he wants her to hang on. But that comfort doesn’t last—what Jem wants is to ruin the popular kids who are responsible, and she has 12 months to make them pay before she can finally let go. Clarke perfectly conveys Jem’s raw, furious grief, and the ironic disconnect between Kai’s cheerleading letters and Jem’s destructive actions is effective. The story loses potency with Jem’s tame revenge scheme, which is based upon an anonymous note naming the culprits, which she accepts without question. The frustration readers experience as Jem ignores clues to the real culprit while irrevocably damaging her relationships with friends is probably intentional, but the shocker of an ending offers no relief. Complicated discussions will ensue. Grades 9-12. --Krista Hutley
