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Girl in Snow: A Novel
Girl in Snow: A Novel
Girl in Snow: A Novel
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Girl in Snow: A Novel

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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“A perfectly paced and tautly plotted thriller…and an incredibly accomplished debut” (Paula Hawkins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Girl on the Train and Into the Water), about a beloved high schooler found murdered in her sleepy Colorado suburb and the secret lives of three people connected to her.

How can you love someone who’s done something horribly, horribly wrong? When a beloved high schooler named Lucinda Hayes is found murdered, no one in her community is untouched—not the boy who loved her too much; not the girl who wanted her perfect life; not the officer assigned to investigate her murder. In the aftermath of the tragedy, these three indelible characters—Cameron, Jade, and Russ—must each confront their darkest secrets in an effort to find solace, the truth, or both.

In crystalline prose, Danya Kukafka offers a brilliant exploration of identity and of the razor-sharp line between love and obsession, between watching and seeing, between truth and memory. “A sensational debut—great characters, mysteries within mysteries, and page-turning pace. Highly recommended” (Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Jack Reacher novels). Hailed as “Gillian Flynn of 2017” (Yahoo! Style), compulsively readable and powerfully moving, Girl in Snow is “engagingly told… its endearing characters’ struggles linger in memory after this affecting work is done” (The Wall Street Journal).
LanguageEnglish
Release dateAug 1, 2017
ISBN9781501144394
Girl in Snow: A Novel
Author

Danya Kukafka

Danya Kukafka is the internationally bestselling author of Girl in Snow. She is a graduate of New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. She works as a literary agent.

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Reviews for Girl in Snow

Rating: 3.368181882727273 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Let me start by saying that this is not a thriller, even though that is how it is being marketed. This is best described as a character-driven story. It is slower paced and revolves completely around the perspectives and experiences of Russ, Cameron, and Jade. While I thought the novel was thought-provoking and interesting, I felt that there was a lack of connection with the characters, especially Lucinda. The murder faded away into the background and while this isn't really something that bothers me at all times, I didn't feel as if the novel or story had enough to keep me interested. I quite liked Jade and Cameron's characters as they at least had some tangible connection to Lucinda. However, Russ was a misnomer in that he really wasn't a necessary component of the story. In fact, he was an officer who really didn't do much in terms of solving the murder, and that really bothered me. Overall, this was an interesting take on a murder mystery, where the story focused more on the characters. However, there was a lack of connection between me and the characters and the plot really didn't have any movement. For those reasons, this novel gets 2.5/5 stars from me.

    I received this novel as an advanced copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I'm not sure if I really liked this book or not. It starts out with a lot of promise and then just kind of fizzles out for me. The story is not much about the girl that is found dead in the snow as it is about the 3 people that were somehow tied to her. Different, very different and different can be good!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This wasn't the mystery I was expecting. Ultimately it felt like the mystery was secondary to the story the author wanted to tell so it reminded me of Robin Kirman's Bradstreet Gate.

    Cameron was all things teen creeper Michael Skakel and Lucinda, this town's Martha Moxley. So I was all kinds of up for this story but somehow this didn't connect for me. I did like the parts with Jade's screenplay of her alternate self/life. The murder is solved well before the end of the book and in such a way that was fairly anti-climactic. Still, I'd read another by the author as she has a way with prose and character study. This one just wasn't really for me.

    I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for my unbiased thoughts & opinions.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Popular high school student Lucinda Hayes has been found murdered in a playground with her neck snapped and buried in the snow. Who has committed this terrible crime? Enter in the novel's three narrators: Cameron, the boy who loved Lucinda too much; Jade, the unpopular girl who envied Lucinda's life; and Russ, the local cop who is assigned to find out what happened. Each chapter of GIRL IN SNOW is told by one of the narrators in a way that unravels the story of what happened to Lucinda on that fateful night, ultimately leading us to our killer. Along the journey we get to know Cameron, Jade, and Russ. We learn their personal struggles, the strange ways in which they are connected to each other, and how at the end of each day we all hold secrets from the people closest to us. While Lucinda Hayes may be gone forever, the ways in which she has touched our narrators will remain through time. Danya Kukafka's debut novel is a character study into three seemingly different individuals who are in reality more similar than they know. Cameron, Jade, and Russ each hold a secret near their heart that they would do anything to keep from being revealed. The narratives individually and together weave a story of heartbreaking loss stemming from a love that turned to obsession. Despite vastly different stories, the damage is just as great for each character. Unfortunately, promotion of this novel, led me to believe that I was picking up a mystery/thriller, which this novel very much is not. I was disappointed as I expected more of an exhilarating story than I received. I was never able to truly feel sucked into this novel and despite wanting to know who the murderer was, my reading speed slowed down dramatically in the middle of this book. Kukafka's GIRL IN SNOW would be perfect for a reader looking for a character study, but those looking for a true thriller should look elsewhere. Thank you to Simon & Schuster, Danya Kukafka, and NetGalley for providing me a free digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest and unbiased view.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Lucinda Hayes, a teenager, has been found dead in the local playground. Her neck was broken. There are several suspects and at one time or another I had my mind made up who had done it. However, I was totally wrong. Yay!The story is told by two teenagers that went to high school with Lucinda. Eaching having a different connection to the deceased girl. One a stalker secretly in love with her and the other, a friend who was (in her mind) betrayed by her. Jade and Cameron are both loners and total misfits. You can't help but feel for them. I loved Jade's screenplays that map out "what she should of said or done". While the book starts out on a suspense novel with a gruesome death at the beginning, the gist of the book is so much more. A book of insights, discoveries, loss, finger pointing, betrayal and raw human emotion while dealing with a murder in a small town.Thanks to Simon & Schuster and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was really lovely in ways I didn't expect. The mystery was good, but the exploration of love in its many forms, and the question of what a person will do for someone they love, made this a standout in its genre. A very pleasant surprise.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book or my review itself.When high school student Lucinda is murdered, it brings out repressed feelings in her own town-especially for Cameron, Jade, and Russ, three characters caught up in painful memories and lost loves of their own.This is a beautifully written book. Kukafka has a great writing style that makes you think and makes you feel. It was like I was right there along with the characters, feeling what they were feeling, trying to figure out life and love as they did.The resolution of the mystery of who killed Lucinda felt a bit rushed. The build up was so suspenseful and mysterious, and the revelation was definitely a big surprise, but I wanted more from it.I definitely liked this book. It's not the best in this genre I've ever read, but Kukafka has a writing style I really enjoy.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Lucinda Hayes is found dead on the playground. From the very beginning I was hooked and didn't want to put the book down. The story is told through the eyes of three people- Jade, Cameron and Russ. Cameron is very socially awkward and has been in love with with Lucinda even though they didn't speak. His favorite game to play was Statute Nights. Pretty much he would just stand outside and watch his neighbors in their houses. Yes, this is definitely creepy. As much as Cameron loved Lucinda, Jade hated her. Jade also watches people. From her bedroom window she could see right into Lucinda's back yard. Then there is Russ. He is a police officer who worked with Cameron's dad. The minor characters added just as much to the plot of the story. Through out the book I kept trying to figure out what happened to Lucinda. I had my suspicions but I never really figured it out until the end. I enjoyed reading about the characters. Some parts were uncomfortable, like when Cameron goes to Lucinda's house and takes one of her dresses to the bathroom. Jade's home life was another cause for concern. Her mother was awful, an alcoholic who didn't mind physically and mentally hurting her daughters. I loved the book- the writing style, characters and story line. I can't wait to read more books from the author. All around a wonderful book which I definitely recommend. Thanks to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster and the author, Danya Kukafka, for a free electronic ARC of this novel.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book is told from the point of view of 3 of the main people involved in the story. Each tells a different part of the story and they all connect. I love these kinds of books, and this was no different. It was very good. I thought the characters were well defined, with different parts of their lives and personalities coming out at different times throughout the storyline. The storyline was built well, as well. I enjoyed this book and do recommend it.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    2.5 stars. Extremely slow moving. In fact, there is not an awful lot happening in this at all. Most of the time is spent inside the heads of three characters (Cameron, Jade and Russ) who for different reasons struggle to fit in and are isolated within their small Colorado community. Young Cameron was obsessed with Lucinda and used to sneak out at night to watch her. Jade didn't like Lucinda because Lucinda was popular and pretty, and Jade isn't. Russ, a local middle-aged police officer, is helping with the investigation into who killed Lucinda on the local playground while simultaneously struggling with his own feelings and links with those involved.The actual mystery of who was responsible for Lucinda's death was not difficult to figure out, and was actually secondary. The story seemed more about the difficulties of meeting expectations, fitting in and simply growing up. In that sense it certainly had a young adult feel to it, which I usually enjoy. But here I never felt invested in any of the characters. It's not that I found them unlikable, but I simply didn't care very much about them. They were all lost and damaged, but there was nothing unique or interesting about them. This is a book for readers who enjoy literary writing. The prose is undoubtedly eloquent, but it also turned into dreary reading at times. Didn't quite deliver what it promised.I received an ARC via NetGalley.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Girl in Snow by Danya Kukafka is a recommended murder mystery, highly for the right reader, that focuses on character studies of three individuals.The body of 15-year-old Lucinda Hayes, a popular high school student, is discovered on a playground in Broomsville, a quiet Colorado town. Girl in Snow follows the investigation through three different characters: Cameron, Jade, and Russ. Ninth-grader Cameron Whitley was obsessed with Lucinda and stalked her, often watching her house at night. He also did numerous drawings of her. Did Cameron's love for her somehow result in violence? Jade Dixon-Burns, an overweight 16-year-old with acne and an abusive mother, hated Lucinda for stealing her babysitting job and her best friend. Russ Fletcher is a local police officer who is on the case. He promised his former disgraced partner, Cameron's missing dad, that he'd look out for Cameron, but he is unsure if this is possible. Russ's ex-con brother-in-law, Ivan, is the overnight janitor at the school and also a suspect.Chapters in the novel switch between these three narrators and the bulk of the action is set over a three day period. The murder mystery part of the novel is downplayed in favor of the careful scrutiny of the thoughts, actions, and past events in the lives of Cameron, Jade, and Russ, whether it all relates to the mystery or not. This makes for an interesting character study but becomes tedious as solving the murder mystery is exponentially drawn out for far too long in the plot. It almost felt like the end result was an afterthought.There is also a slight YA feel to the novel, perhaps because of the focus inside the heads of two teens. Cameron's narrative feels dreamy, unfocused, and there are large section of time where he can't remember what happened. Jade's narrative sections also include scenes from plays she is writing based on real life interactions and conversations. She had some big reason's to hate Lucinda and this is fully explored. The end result of focusing on these two teens is that you get a double-portion of teen angst and anxiety, but less murder investigation.Kukafka is a writer to watch, however, because of the quality of her writing and the portraits she creates of these three individuals. While the novel did feel a bit overlong and drawn out at times due to the dense prose, the skillful character studies also set it apart. This may not quite be the murder mystery you hoped you were picking up, but it is a fine character study and it does provide an answer to the mystery in the end. (3.5 rounded up.)Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Simon & Schuster.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A fast-paced read about the murder of a teenage girl in a Colorado town. Told from the alternating perspectives of her high school classmates and a police officer investigating the murder, this mystery reads quickly and slowly reveals more about the characters, ending with the revelation about the murder. Overall, this was a good & quick book, perfect for those wanting something fast-paced and satisfying.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    DNF @ 37%. The writing felt very YA to me and the story just wasn't drawing me in. This felt more like a character study than a mystery/thriller and it just wasn't what I was looking for.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is a psychological thriller focusing on three characters, Cameron, Jade, and Russ. Cameron is an awkward 15 year old who adored Lucinda, the murdered "girl in the snow." He worshiped her from afar, and could perhaps even be described as Lucinda's stalker. After Lucinda's deaths, some of his actions become known, and he finds himself a murder suspect.Jade is a 17 year old Goth girl, also an outsider. She has reasons to hate Lucinda, but she also has knowledge that Cameron was not the murderer. Russ is the policeman who is investigating the murder. He is the former partner of Cameron's father who had been involved in a huge police scandal years before and who is no longer in the picture.The characters in this novel are very well-drawn. Then plotting is very good and plausible, although the discovery of the murderer and solving of the crime were not particularly original or surprising, which may be a good thing.3 stars
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A young high school girl is murdered and her body is found in the snow. The story is told by a boy who stalks her (Cameron) an "alternative" moody girl (Jade) who is her best friend and (Russ) a policeman who is on the case. There are many, many twists and turns and virtually every character has a reason to be a suspect. Cameron and Jade are two of the most interesting characters I have ever read in fiction. Cameron is on the autism spectrum with many quirks and Jade is off the wall in her behaviors and reactions.Great book - maybe the next HBO mini series?
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This novel begins with the discovery of the body of high school student Lucinda, a popular teenager in a small Colorado town. After being hit on the head with a blunt object, she then hit her head again as she fell on the carousel in the playground of the elementary school and died as a result of her injuries. The story covers a period of several days and is told, in short chapters, from the perspectives of three characters – Russ, the policeman who found the body, Cameron a disturbed, but artistically, gifted teenager who worshiped Lucinda from afar and was known to have spent hours watching (some would say stalking) her, and classmate Jade, who hated Lucinda for “stealing” her boyfriend. In the background are several other characters who feature in the investigation, a teacher with a reputation for getting too friendly with female students, a couple who used Lucinda and Jade as babysitters, the school caretaker, Russ’s brother-in-law and various other family members and friends of Russ, Cameron and Jade. One of these characters is guilty of Lucinda’s death but the investigation is far from straightforward and, although the finger of suspicion is initially focused on Cameron, it soon emerges that other people could have a motive for killing her. Having read the synopsis I had been expecting a traditional, fast-paced psychological thriller but that is not how this intriguing story unfolds. Instead the narrative from each of the main characters is developed through three internal streams of consciousness as each of them reflects on events in the present, as well as those which have led up to the present tragedy. Each of the characters is struggling with inner demons and each has something to hide, but the author’s acutely observed and beautifully portrayed examination of their behaviour, and their relationships, engaged me from the start. Not only did she perfectly capture the angst and pathos of struggling adolescents, Cameron and Jade, but she was equally adept at conveying the struggles facing Russ, who was dealing with his ex-con brother-in-law and the loss of his friend and ex- work partner, Cameron’s father, who disappeared years earlier, following a trial for his assault on a young woman. The psychological profiles of all three characters were convincingly credible and, although there were moments when I thought that the inner soul-searching ran the risk of being a bit unrelenting and repetitive, on balance I think she managed her approach to the story-telling in an integrated and authentic way. The actual murder investigation mostly feels peripheral to the gradual exposure of the inner lives of the main characters and the effects Lucinda’s death has on each of them. Both Cameron and Jade are regarded as social misfits, even as “freaks” by some of their peers, and the author sensitively and powerfully portrays their very different ways of dealing with this. Cameron’s rather introverted personality is reinforced by his increasing struggle with mental health problems and his social isolation. Rebellious Jade, with her pierced lip, her chipped black nail polish, her attention-seeking t-shirts and her claims not to “give a monkey’s…” what anyone thinks of her, uses an alternative dialogue, in the form of a screenplay, to convey what she wishes she had said but didn’t because she feared being seen as a “dick”. With her insightful prose the author conveys what it feels like to be “different” as you struggle with trying to understand yourself and, at the same time, try to make sense of the world you inhabit. In addition to exploring the effects of the murder on individuals, the story captures the effects it has on a small-town community and demonstrates the darkness which can be exposed when tragedy strikes, and dysfunctional relationships are put under pressure. Exposure, in one form or another is a thread which runs through the story, creating a tension which grows as suspicion falls on first one person and then another, making it impossible to know who can be trusted. Much as I admired and appreciated the author’s beautiful, at times poetic writing, her portrayals of her characters and her descriptions of scenery, I have to admit that there were moments when I wished for just a little humour to leaven what sometimes felt like endless angst and misery! Nevertheless, this is a book I highly recommend, and I think it would be a very good choice for reading groups. My thanks to Nudge for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    When I started this book, I was expecting a mystery or suspenseful story based on what I thought the book was about, I was very disappointed. This story is about three characters; Cameron, Jade and Russ and what they learn about themselves in the aftermath of the death of a ninth grader, Lucinda. The mystery element is there, with the investigation here and there throughout the book, but it was almost an afterthought. I plugged away at the story, but found it very slow moving and there was not much happening until almost 75% of the way through. As we learn more about the three characters, we see their dark sides and their secrets.

    Having said all that, Danya Kukafka's writing is beautiful. It’s lyrical and very descriptive. It often felt like you were in a dream wondering what would come next. I did not become attached to any of the characters while reading this book. It was not until the last quarter or so of the book where the real killer is revealed that had me interested. It moved quickly and the suspense built up.

    I did not enjoy this book, but if you are a fan of introspective writing styles and like books that explore inner turmoil, angst, or struggles of the characters, then you will probably enjoy this book much more than I did.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Girl in Snow was a little slow at first. The author just gives you enough information to keep you interested. There are a couple of stories going on in this book. In the end, it was impossible to put down. I had to find out what happened and how everything intertwined together.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I tried really hard to like Girl in Snow, Danya Kukafka’s debut novel. When that failed, I forced myself to finish it. I hoped it would improve, that something would bring me to the edge of my seat. Instead, I ended up swallowing an anti-climatic jumble of words with little of the characteristics of a mystery novel and absolutely none of what a reader expects in a thriller.

    This review is not a reflection of Kukafka’s ability to write; she certainly has a knack for character development. Rather, it’s a statement of the banality of this work. Girl in Snow drags from page to page, with each chapter revealing more useless facts about each character. Sure, Cameron’s love borders on obsession; yes, Jade is a brat; and Russ is simply a police officer. By the last page though, readers learn every little detail of these three’s life – but for what purpose?

    Girl in Snow may appeal to readers who like something that crawls at a snail’s pace, but labeling this book a thriller is misguiding. I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I received a free advance e-copy of this book and have chosen to write an honest and unbiased review. I have no personal affiliation with the author. Wow! This is an extremely well written piece of crime fiction. The author kept me guessing right up until the ending. Who is the killer? I couldn’t put it down and at times I felt chills running up and down my spine. An amazing plot with excellent character development. This book is worth the read and I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    First, thank you to NetGalley (Simon and Schuster) for a copy of this e-book for my enjoyment and review. The characters were, in my opinion amazing, as was Kukafka's writing. Her prose flowed along very well, easy to follow, back and forth from each character being investigated in the murder of a young high school student. Three of her classmates, a police officer and the school janitor were all described in their relationship with Lucinda and the murder investigation. It is a somewhat dark story, no humor or upbeat kind of story – but well written and easy to read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Fifteen-year-old Lucinda Hayes is found murdered on a snowy carousel in the park. The police have a list of suspects, but no firm leads. In alternating chapters, three people who are close to the case tell their stories. As they talk readers learn more details about their lives, as well as Lucinda’s life.Jade hated Lucinda and wanted her gone because her boyfriend was Jade’s former best friend and only true love. To make sure Lucinda disappeared she performed a witch’s spell, and it worked. Did she kill Lucinda with her spell? Cameron loved Lucinda but, though they went to school together, Lucinda never noticed him. He liked spying on her at night but, sometimes, things went fuzzy and he didn’t always remember. He loved her, but did he kill her?Russ is one of the detectives assigned to the case, even though he’d been partners with Cameron’s father and knows the family. As he tells his story, readers soon realize he is hiding a secret of his own. Each of these three talk about other suspects so, when the killer is finally revealed, readers will be in for a huge shock. Kukafka definitely fooled me.Though the book has teenage protagonists, there are many themes which tilt the book more towards adult readers. Thus I will recommend it for readers eighteen and older.Recommended for Adults.Book review link:
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    “Tragedy struck in northern Colorado this morning, where the body of a fifteen-year-old girl was discovered on a [snowy] elementary school playground. The victim has been identified as Lucinda Hayes, a ninth-grade student at Jefferson High School.”Lucinda's death and the subsequent three-day murder investigation sets forth a firestorm of memories, self-reflection and introspection through three primary protagonists and a host of secondary characters. The three main characters alternate chapters offering different perspectives on the murder and Lucinda's brief life where Cameron and Russ are told in the third person and we hear directly from Jade.Fifteen-year-old Cameron Whitley's first thoughts after learning of Lucinda's death were that "her shoulder blades framed her naked spine like a pair of static lungs". He spends his nights standing still in the dark outside homes watching his neighbors' candid movements and activities. Lucinda Hayes is his primary interest and over time has become his compulsion. He began his nightly stalking after taking an art class and became curious to people's lives in candid moments. The community is aware of Cameron's habits and peculiar behavior; he was considered annoying and presumed as an innocent...until the murder. When stressed, Cameron devolves into a state he refers to as "tangled" and becomes erratic and performs dangerous actions like stealing his mother's gun for a shooting spree in the woods.“Cameron had started playing Statue Nights when he was twelve years old. The summer after sixth grade, he realized he could pop out the screen in his bedroom window...”Seventeen-year-old Jade Dixon-Burns learned about Lucinda's death over breakfast and "felt only a foreign lightness: like someone sucked the weight from her legs, taken the terrible thoughts out of her head, softened some sharpness jabbing at her ribs". Jade, seen as an outcast and oddball, hated the beautiful, popular and alluring Lucinda. Her hate centers on the fact that Lucinda, just by being attractive, is loved, valued, and appreciated.We learn the most about Lucinda through Jade's story. Jade displays a sarcastic and aloof side to the world but we see that she has great strength of character just below the surface. She lives with an abusive mother and sees herself as unlovable. Her relief valve is her need to write scripts that help clarify her thoughts and feelings.And she shares Cameron's need to observe others...she is always aware and watching. She knows things about the murder. She is my favorite character.“Jade Dixon-Burns hates Lucinda. Lucinda took everything from Jade: her babysitting job, and her best friend. The worst part was Lucinda's blissful ignorance to the damage she'd wrought.”Police Officer Russ Fletcher is stunned. Serving nearly 20 years on the force, this is his first body - his first murder victim. When Russ learns that Cameron is a suspect, he is flung back to an earlier time in his career when he patrolled with Lee Whitley, Cameron's father, and a promise he made to his old partner to watch over his delicate son. Russ has his own secrets and when revealed, will leave you feeling sad for him.“Officer Russ Fletcher doesn't know Lucinda, but he knows the kid everyone is talking about, the boy who may have killed her...Cameron Whitley.”Cameron, Jade and Russ lead us to others that play pivotal roles in their lives and we witness the reactions and suspicions of a small town rocked by violence; judgments are made about people and events based on our preconceived ideas and observations that can lead away from the truth.As a final note, since we are dealing with budding adults with raging hormones, there's strong references to sexual inquisitiveness and experiences.In total, it is a complex and twisted story but well crafted. As a debut work, it has pulled together many elements of a true mystery with a flair to the dramatic. There are weak spots in the conclusion and the resolution of the crime but overall a worthy read.I would definitely read another book by this author.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Some books impact you in such a way that you continue to think about the characters after the story ends. ‘Girl in Snow’ by Danya Kukafka is that book! I was expecting a YA novel similar to ’13 Reasons Why’ but found a deft character analysis not expected by a debut novelist.‘A Girl in Snow’ tells the story of Lucinda, a 15-year old high school student who appears murdered one snowy night in a small Colorado suburb. The novel is told in alternating chapters by 3 people in Lucinda’s life: Cameron, the boy who watched her from a far and loved everything he saw; Jade, the social misfit who was forced as a young child to spend time with Lucinda but never became her friend; and Russ, a patrolman part of the murder investigation. Each of the 3 storytellers have secrets that evolve over 3 days while Cameron/Jade/Russ think about their pasts, how they ended up at this point and who murdered Lucinda. As a devoted mystery reader, it wasn’t difficult to figure out who killed a 15-year old girl and left her in the snow. If you want to read a mystery to figure out the who-done-it, then this book isn’t for you. ‘A Girl in the Snow’ evokes sympathy for the characters, frustration about misunderstandings and appreciation for a story well told. Danya Kukafka is an author that I will keep an eye on. I don’t believe ‘A Girl in Snow’ is beginners luck.I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The body of beautiful and popular Lucinda, a 15-year-old high school student, is found murdered in a playground in a small and seemingly quiet Colorado town. All the clues seem to point to Cameron, 14, a lonely misfit who was obsessed with her. He would spend his nights outside her house watching her. He called these nights his ‘Collection of Statue Nights’. Then there is Jade, 15, overweight, unpopular, the daughter of an abusive alcoholic mother, and obsessed with Zap, once her best friend but recently Lucinda’s boyfriend. For these and other reasons, she hated Lucinda. Finally, there is Russ, a policeman involved with the case who is obsessed with Cameron’s father, once his partner on the police force but who is no longer around for reasons that are not revealed until well into the story.Girl in Snow is the debut novel by author Danya Kukafka.The story is told over the space of three days and in alternate chapters by these three characters. Although there is certainly an interesting mystery here, I would not characterize it as a thriller. Rather, it is more a quiet but interesting look at love in many of its saddest forms - wounded, thwarted, unrequited but especially obsessive. Although not a perfect book –at times, the prose seems overblown and the story occasionally seems to meander away from the plot. Overall, though, it is an enjoyable and insightful tale with interesting characters. Definitely a very impressive first novel. Thanks to Edelweiss and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read this novel in exchange for an honest review
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Definitely not a "happily ever after" book. Unfortunately, we all still live with the past childhood issues and bullies. A decent story and really torn between 3 & 4 stars.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Girl in Snow by Danya Kukafka is a dark and brooding novel that revolves around the murder of fifteen year old Lucinda Hayes. Although there is an ongoing investigation to catch the killer, this is not a typical whodunit; it instead reads as character study of the story's three narrators.

    Lucinda is a popular student and the news of her murder sends shockwaves through the community.  Fellow classmate Cameron Whitley is rather troubled and his crush on Lucinda has become a full-blown obsession. Cameron has an unsavory habit of peering into other people's (including Lucinda's) windows under the cover of darkness. However his behavior in regards to Lucinda crosses the line into stalking and while this is somewhat creepy, does his unhealthy fixation  on her make him a killer?

    Classmate Jade Dixon-Burns has an extremely unhappy home life due to an alcoholic mother and checked out father. She loathes Lucinda with every fiber of her being and she has resorted to a voodoo curse to exact her revenge on her nemesis.  Obviously Lucinda's death is not from voodoo but did Jade's extreme dislike drive her to murder?

    Local police Officer Russ Fletcher did not know the victim but he is connected to the case by two of the suspects. In a strange twist of fate, Fletcher's first partner was Cameron's dad who, for unknown reasons has  mysteriously (and perhaps, ominously) vanished from town.  Russ wants to carry out his ex-partner's request to watch over Cameron, so he is a bit conflicted throughout the investigation.  His tie to another suspect is much closer to his own troubled home which does nothing to alleviate the very real possibility that he will try to deflect attention away from Cameron during the investigation.

    Girl in Snow by Danya Kukafka focuses more on the novel's narrators than the actual investigation into Lucinda's murder. The pacing of the novel is slow since Jade, Cameron and Russ are mostly lost in self-absorbed introspection.  None of the narrators are particularly likable or interesting and although Lucinda's murder is solved, this feels more like an afterthought to the ongoing drama of the three principal characters.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book was amazing. I don't repeat what you can get from the book cover. I just try to explain how a book made me feel, because that is the important part.I do not believe I have ever read characters that felt more real to me. These characters were flawed or not flawed in such real feeling ways. Sometimes we all have inappropriate responses to something or other, and these characters do that. With no apologies. And I believed each of them and I instinctively knew what they were capable of based on their characteristics. It was as if they were real. When I was in this book, it was real. I still remember the way it made me feel and I remember the people as if they were friends or relatives . It is also a great story line that is difficult to figure out and keeps you on edge trying to. Read the book and welcome some new people into your lives as well.

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Book preview

Girl in Snow - Danya Kukafka

Day

One

WEDNESDAY

FEBRUARY 16, 2005

Cameron

When they told him Lucinda Hayes was dead, Cameron thought of her shoulder blades and how they framed her naked spine, like a pair of static lungs.

They called an assembly.

The teachers buzzed against the far wall of the gymnasium, checking their watches and craning their necks. Cameron sat next to Ronnie in the top corner of the bleachers. He bit his fingernails and watched everyone spin about. His left pinky finger, already cracked and dry, began to bleed around the cuticle.

What do you think this is for? Ronnie said. Ronnie never brushed his teeth in the morning. There were zits around the corners of his mouth, and they were white and full at the edges. Cameron leaned away.

Principal Barnes stood at the podium on the half-court line, adjusting his jacket. The ninth-grade class snapped their gum and laughed in little groups, hiking up their backpacks and squeaking colorful shoes across the gymnasium floor.

Can everyone hear me? Principal Barnes said, hands on each side of the podium. He brushed a line of sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, squeezed his eyes shut.

Jefferson High School is in the midst of a tragedy, Principal Barnes said. Last night, we were forced to say good-bye to one of our most gifted students. It is with regret that I inform you of the passing of your classmate, Miss Lucinda Hayes.

The microphone shrieked, crackled.

In the days following, Cameron would remember this as the moment he lost her. The hum of the overhead fluorescent lights created a rhythm in time with the whispers that blossomed from every direction. If this moment were a song, Cameron thought, it would be a quiet song—the sort of song that drowned you in your own miserable chest. It was stunning and tender. It dropped, it shattered, and Cameron could only feel the weight of this melody, this song that felt both crushing and delicate.

Fuck, Ronnie whispered. The song built and built and built, a steady rush.

It took Cameron six more seconds to notice that no one had a face.

He leaned over the edge of the bleachers and vomited through the railings.

Last night:

Almond eyes glaring out onto the lawn. A pink palm spread wide on Lucinda’s bedroom window screen. The clouds overhead, moving in fast, a gray sheet shaken out over midnight suede.

The nurse said you threw up, Mom said when she picked him up, later that afternoon.

Cameron nudged the crushed crackers and lint on the carpet of the minivan, pushing them into small mountains with the side of his snow boot. Mom took a sip of coffee from her travel mug.

After the initial drama had simmered down, everyone had gathered outside the gymnasium to speculate. The baseball boys said she was raped. The loser girls said she killed herself. Ronnie had agreed. She probably killed herself, don’t you think? She was always writing in that journal. I bet she left a note. Dude, your fucking throw-up is on my shoe.

Cameron, Mom tried again, three streets later. She was using her sympathetic voice. Mom had the sort of sympathetic voice that Cameron hated—it seeped from her throat in sugary spurts. He hated to imagine his sadness inside her. Mom didn’t deserve any of it.

I know this is hard. This shouldn’t happen to people your age—especially not to girls like Lucinda.

Mom. Stop.

Cameron rested his forehead against the frosted window. He wondered if a forehead print was like a fingerprint. It was probably less identifiable, because foreheads weren’t necessarily different from person to person, unless you were looking at the print on a microscopic level, and how often did people take the time for that?

He wondered how it would feel to kiss someone through glass. He’d seen a movie once about a guy who kissed his wife through a jail visitation-room window and he’d wondered if that felt like a real kiss. He thought a kiss was more about the intention than the act, so it hardly mattered if saliva hit glass or more saliva.

Since he was thinking about lips, he was thinking about Lucinda Hayes and hating himself, because Lucinda Hayes was dead.

When they got home, Mom sat him down on the couch. She turned on the television. Get your mind off things. She emptied a can of chicken noodle soup into a bowl, but over the whir of the microwave, the voice of the news anchor blared.

Tragedy struck in northern Colorado this morning, where the body of a fifteen-year-old girl was discovered on an elementary-school playground. The victim has been identified as Lucinda Hayes, a ninth-grade student at Jefferson High School. The staff member who made the horrific find offered no comment. The investigation will continue under the direction of Lieutenant Timothy Gonzalez of the Broomsville Police Department. Civilians are encouraged to report any suspicious behavior.

Lucinda’s eighth-grade yearbook photo smiled down from the corner of the television screen, her face flat and pixelated. The remote dropped from Cameron’s hand to the coffee table—the back popped off, and three AAA batteries rolled noisily along the table and onto the carpet.

Cameron? Mom called from the kitchen.

He knew that park, the elementary school down the block. It was just behind their cul-de-sac, halfway between his house and Lucinda’s.

Before Mom could reach him, Cameron was stumbling down the hall, opening his bedroom door. He couldn’t be bothered to turn on the lights—he was ripping the sheets off his bed, he was pulling his sketchbook and charcoals and kneaded eraser from their hiding spot beneath his mattress.

He ripped out the sketchbook pages one by one and spread them in a circle around his bedroom floor. It took his eyes a moment to adjust to the dark of his room, but when they did, he was surrounded by Lucinda Hayes.

In most of the drawings, she was happy. In most of the drawings, it was sunny, and one side of her face was lighter than the other. The left, always the left. In most of the drawings, she was smiling wholly—not like in the yearbook photo, where the photographer caught her before she was herself.

Lucinda’s face was easy to draw from memory. Her cheekbones were high and bright. The lines near Lucinda’s mouth gave her the appearance of effortless happiness. Her lashes were thick and winged outward, so if Cameron skewed the shape of her eyes or set them too deep beneath her brow line, you could still tell it was Lucinda. In most of the drawings, her mouth was open in laughter; you could see the gap between her two front teeth. Cameron loved that gap. It unclothed her.

Cameron pressed his eyes to his kneecaps. He could not look at Lucinda like this because he had missed her most important parts: The way her legs flew out when she ran, from all those years of ballet. How her hair got frizzy at the front when she walked home from school in the heat. The way she sat at her kitchen table after school, listening to music on her shiny pink MP3 player, drumming white-painted fingernails against the marble. He always imagined she listened to oldies because he thought they fit her. Little bitty pretty one. Cameron had missed the way she squinted when she couldn’t see the board in class, the creases at the corners of her eyes like plastic blinds she had opened to let in the sunlight.

He couldn’t look at Lucinda like this because now she was dead, and all he had were the useless things—a smeared charcoal iris. A pinky finger drawn quickly, slightly too thin.

Oh God, Cam, Mom whispered from the doorway. Oh, God.

Mom stood with her hands on the doorframe, taking in his ring of drawings, looking like she might crumple. Her pink, striped sweater looked fake and sad, and Cameron wanted to melt her right into him so she wouldn’t look so old. The way Mom’s hands clung to the doorframe reminded Cameron of when he was a kid and Mom did ballet in the basement. She used the dirty windowsill as a barre and put her Mozart tapes in the cassette player. She whispered to herself. And one and two and three and four. Jeté, jeté, pas de bourrée. Cameron watched through the railing of the basement stairs. Her old back never straightened, and her old toes never pointed, and she looked like a bird with a body of broken bones. It made him sad to watch her dance because she looked so fragile and so expressive and so happy and so fragmented, all at once. Mom looked like herself when she danced; he had always thought so.

Cameron wanted to tell Mom that he was sorry for all of this. But he could not, because of the horrified way she was looking at his collection of Lucinda.

Cameron put his head back on his knees and kept it there until he was sure Mom had gone.

Things Cameron Could Not Think About:

1. The .22-caliber handgun in the lockbox underneath Mom’s bed.

Gandhi was assassinated with a Beretta M1934—three bullets to the chest. Lincoln took a bullet from a .44-caliber derringer. A .30-06 hunting rifle killed Martin Luther King Jr., and John Lennon was murdered with a .38-caliber pistol. The only famous person shot with a .22-caliber handgun was Ronald Reagan, who came out of the ordeal just fine. This made Cameron feel a bit better, like maybe if he or Mom were to use the pistol, the chances of actually killing someone were less than if Mom had, say, a 9-millimeter.

2. Dr. Duncan MacDougall.

Dr. Duncan MacDougall claimed in 1907 that the human soul weighed twenty-one grams. Cameron had read this statistic a few years back, after Grandma Mary died. He calculated exactly where he was at the moment she passed: in the kitchen, washing crusty macaroni off a plate. There had been a functioning body on earth and now there was not—didn’t it have to be subtracted somehow? But after Grandma Mary died, the earth weighed twenty-one grams less and Cameron had gone on washing. Nothing had felt lighter.

Cameron tried to calculate exactly where he was last night, when Lucinda died on the playground. He couldn’t fathom it—like when you tried to remember what you had for breakfast, and in the process of fishing for the truth you only pushed it deeper down, until you could have had pancakes or pizza or a five-course meal, but you’d thought about it so much you’d never know.

3. Hum.

Lucinda was probably there now, standing in front of the blue-painted door, wondering how any place could be so peaceful.

4. The strips of translucent hair on Lucinda’s shins where she forgot to shave.

Before Mom picked Cameron up at school that afternoon, Ronnie and Cameron had walked together to history class. Ronnie wore what he’d had on since last Thursday: A pair of forest-green sweat pants and a plain white T-shirt with yellow armpits. An oversized black ski jacket, unzipped. His head stuck out the top like a cardboard box balanced on a #2-pencil neck.

Dude, Ronnie said. This is some seriously crazy shit.

Police officers milled around at the end of the hall. From this distance, they looked like ants.

Cameron had turned fifteen last month, but he wouldn’t take driver’s ed. He would never learn to drive. He didn’t want to risk getting pulled over and having to look a police officer in the eye. Hey, the officer would say. Aren’t you Lee Whitley’s son?

It didn’t help that they looked similar. Cameron and Dad were both wiry, with long arms that swung when they walked. They had the same light-brown hair. (Cameron grew it out, because Dad had a crew cut.) Pointy nose, pasty skin, hazel eyes. Narrow shoulders, which Cameron hid in various versions of the same baggy hoodie. Knees that bowed in a V shape, pointing naturally inward. Shy feet.

People used to say that Cameron and Dad had the same laugh, but Cameron didn’t like to remember that.

Ronnie had talked all the way to class, and Cameron had ignored him. Ronnie Weinberg was Cameron’s best friend—his only friend—because neither of them knew what to say or when to say it. Ronnie was obnoxious, while Cameron was quiet, and no one else spoke to either of them.

Beth DeCasio, Lucinda’s best friend, had decided a long time ago that Ronnie smelled bad and Cameron was weird. People tended to believe Beth DeCasio. Beth once told Mr. O—Cameron’s favorite teacher—that Cameron was the sort of kid who would bring a gun to school. Aside from dealing with the administrative mess that followed—the interviews with the school psychologist, the calls home to Mom, the staff meeting—Cameron had the same nightmare for four months straight. In the dream, he brought a gun to school and he shot everyone without meaning to. But that wasn’t the worst part. In the dream, he had to live the rest of his life knowing those families were out there, missing their kids. Mom had lots of meetings with the school’s counselors, and after, she’d come home vibrating and angry. Unfounded and unprofessional, she’d say. She’d make Cameron tea and assure him that he would never do such a thing, and besides, it was physically impossible to accidentally shoot a whole school of people.

Cameron still thought about it sometimes. Not in a way that made him want to shoot anyone—still, he felt like a toxin in the bloodstream.

Now, Beth DeCasio walked in front of Cameron, arms linked with Kaylee Walker and Ana Sanchez. She wore purple, Lucinda’s favorite color. This made Cameron think of Lucinda’s diary—the cover was purple suede, with a white elastic band holding it shut. The girls cried, their shoulders hunched, tissues bunched in their palms.

Usually, Lucinda left her house between 7:07 and 7:18 a.m. Sometimes, her dad would take the morning off from his law firm and they would go to breakfast at the Golden Egg, but this generally happened less than once a month, and Cameron always factored in the odds. It occurred to Cameron now, as Lucinda’s friends cried in front of trophy cases, that this morning had been different, and he hadn’t even known—Lucinda had not been walking down the street, behind or in front of him. She had not brushed her teeth over the bathroom sink, she had not eaten a croissant or yelled at her mom, she had not wrestled her arms into her yellow down coat.

Cameron felt genuinely sorry for Beth, Kaylee, and Ana, though he didn’t think anyone had a right to be sadder than anyone else. A girl was dead, a beautiful girl, and there was tragedy in that. And anyway, some types of love were quieter than others.

I bet it was some kinky shit that killed her, Ronnie said as they took their seats in history class. Like, strangulation or something. Everyone’s talking about her ex-boyfriend, that soccer player—Zap. Douchebag looks like he’s into the nasty shit. He made a choking motion.

Ms. Evans flicked on a movie about the Hundred Years’ War and shut the lights.

Cameron was afraid of the dark. It came down to thinking and unthinking. Once he imagined the possibilities that accompanied absolute darkness, he would convince and unconvince himself of all sorts of horrors: A stroke in his sleep, and the subsequent paralysis. Sleepwalking to the drawer of steak knives in the kitchen. All the awful things your own body could do to itself. He’d twist in circles around his miserable brain until he exhausted himself and fell asleep or lifted the screen off his bedroom window and ran. Neither option helped much.

Excuse me, said a gruff voice from the doorway. The smell—Dad had smelled just like that. Tobacco, coffee, rusty chains. May we speak with one of your students?

Of course, Ms. Evans said.

Cameron Whitley? The police officer was silhouetted in the crack of fluorescent light that streamed in from the hall. You’ll need to come with us.

Jade

I have a theory: faking shock is easier than faking sadness. Shock is a more basic emotion than sadness—it’s just an inflated version of surprise.

The details have been released, the vice-principal says. He claps his hands together, all business. The victim was a student here at Jefferson High, Lucinda Hayes. The ninth-grade class is currently in the auditorium, where Principal Barnes is delivering the news. There will be a memorial service on Friday. Counseling will be available in the front office. We encourage you all to stay alert.

He strides out of the classroom, a swish of khakis.

I pinch the bridge of my nose. I look stupid, but so does everyone else. Half the class looks genuinely sad—embarrassingly sad—and the other half bounces with the sort of glee you only find during a drama like this.

I imagine how the shock must look on Zap, but I don’t dare turn around.

Zap has this way of sitting. He leans back in chairs, spreads his knees wide, lets his limbs do what they want. It’s not arrogant or lazy. It’s intentional. Comfortable. Zap leans back and lets his body occupy that space, as if he commanded the chair to assemble beneath him and it listened.

Today, Zap sits at the broken leftie desk by the window, three rows back. He wears a red sweat shirt and corduroy pants with holes in the knees. They’re too short at the ankles because Zap grew five inches last winter. His glasses are still fogged up from walking across Willow Square in the biting February cold.

These are things I know without looking.

The rest is up to my imagination—how the shock of Lucinda Hayes sits carefully on him. All wrong at first, loose on his frame. But it will sink in. The shock will move from Zap’s shoulders to his neck, to the birthmark on his second left rib. From there it will spread to all the places I can’t see.

Shock is just sadness that hasn’t reached the gut.

Of course, I already know that Lucinda Hayes is dead.

I find out before school this morning, over a naked Toaster Strudel. Ma throws away the frosting packets so we won’t get fat, leaving our strudels an unassuming brown, bare oven tracks running across their backs.

Sit down, girls, Ma says. She taps ash from her cigarette into the kitchen sink. A hiss. In the morning, the wrinkles on Ma’s face are canyons.

Amy totters to the kitchen table and swings her gigantic purse onto my chair. Amy recently decided backpacks were immature for a seventh-grader, so she carries a brown faux-leather purse instead. Her math textbook is so heavy she walks with a limp.

It’s about Lucinda, Ma says. I’m so sorry, sweetheart. She’s—she’s passed away. Ma sighs in her pitying way (usually reserved for the post-office attendant and the boy in Amy’s class with recurrent cancer).

Amy’s bottom lip quakes. Then a shrill, gravelly cry. She stands dramatically and backs into the sliding door, spreading her pink-painted fingernails against the glass and suctioning them there like starfish.

Ma puts out her cigarette on a pizza-stained paper plate and crouches in her sweat pants next to Amy, who slides to the floor. Ma strokes her hair, unknotting the tangles inconspicuously.

I’m so sorry, honey. They’ll make an announcement at school today.

Ma is sorry for Amy. She is not sorry for me. I’ve never cried like that, so frantic and choked. I’m not trying to be brave or stoic or anything. I’ve just never liked anyone enough. Ma knows this. She glares at me, Amy’s head still in the crook of her elbow. A runny line of snot drips from Amy’s nose onto Ma’s freckled arm.

Jesus, Jade, she says, shifting her gaze to my stomach, which pudges out from the bottom of my Crucibles T-shirt, bare under my unzipped army parka. Go put on a real shirt. You’re taking your sister to school today.

I lean over the kitchen counter, resting my elbows on an outdated phone book.

Emotions shouldn’t have names. I don’t know why we bother talking about them, because emotions are never what they’re supposed to be. You could say I feel ecstatic, or guilty, or disgusted with myself. You could say all of the above. Amy sobs, but I identify only this foreign lightness: like someone has sucked the weight from my legs, taken the terrible thoughts out of my head, softened some sharpness jabbing at my ribs. I don’t know.

It’s so calm.

Are you even human? Amy asks.

Madison Middle School is a rectangle in the distance.

Alien, I say. Surprise.

You’re not even sad.

Yes, I am.

You’re not. Ma says you have serious issues with ‘empathy’ and ‘self-control’ and ‘sad tendencies.’

The word is ‘sadistic,’ I tell her.

Lucinda is dead, she says, and you don’t even care.

Amy hitches up her purse and her leopard-print coat spreads open in the front. Amy wears a 32AA bra, and no matter how she is feeling, Amy is always quite cute. It’s the product of a fortunate combination: Amy’s red hair and the millions of freckles that dot her cheeks like grains of sand.

It’s pretty fucked up, Jade, she says. She pauses before the word fucked to consider. We’ve known her our whole lives, and now she’s dead, and you’re not even pretending to be sad.

I pump the tip of my tongue through the silver loop in my lip. I do this when I want someone to stop talking. It always works.

Amy stomps ahead, hugging herself close, shoulders bobbing as she stifles more sobs. Always the drama queen. She’s never been close with Lucinda, only Lucinda’s little sister, Lex. When we were young, Ma subjected us to weekly playdates—Lex and Amy would spend hours playing princesses in the Hayeses’ basement, while Lucinda and I were forced to sit there awkwardly until Ma came to pick us up. Lucinda would braid friendship bracelets, and I would read comic books, and we’d pointedly ignore each other while our sisters played make-believe. Lex and Amy used to be inseparable, but now they only hang out when Ma arranges it.

I wonder how Amy would feel if I died. Maybe she’d sleep in my bed some nights. Maybe she’d make a blanket out of my old T-shirts, which she’d keep in a box to show her children once they turned sixteen. Maybe she’d feel relieved. I’m suddenly aware of the ten feet of space between us, the four sections of sidewalk that separate Amy and me. I almost run to catch up with her. But just as unexpectedly as it comes, the desire passes again, leaving a faint, pulsing hatred somewhere I can’t touch.

WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY BUT CAN’T WITHOUT BEING A DICK

A Screenplay by Jade Dixon-Burns

EXT. PINE RIDGE DRIVE—BROOMSVILLE, COLORADO—EARLY MORNING

CELLY (17, slouched, dyed black hair), and SISTER (13, her opposite), walk to school. Celly hums a bouncy, upbeat song.

SISTER

Are you even human?

CELLY

Alien, surprise.

SISTER

You’re not even sad.

CELLY

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