I Will Find You Again

Starred review from January 16, 2023
In this stirring and complex novel by Lyu (The Best Lies), 17-year-old high-achieving Chase Ohara, who is Japanese, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Taiwanese, wrestles with drug dependency and grief following her ex-girlfriend’s death. Chase’s seemingly perfect life as cross-country team captain and future valedictorian has felt off-kilter ever since her breakup with her childhood best friend turned girlfriend, 17-year-old Korean adoptee Lia Vestiano. After Chase ignores a text from Lia requesting that Chase meet her in Montauk—where the pair used to go to escape the expectations of their affluent, predominantly white town—and Lia goes missing, Chase’s subsequent search for her turns up empty. When authorities discover Lia’s body washed ashore in Montauk, they’re quick to label it death by suicide, which Chase refuses to accept. Feeling at fault for Lia’s death, Chase teams up with the girl Lia was last dating to investigate. Chase is also inadvertently roped into a cheating ring with the classmate who supplies her with an amphetamine that she takes to help maintain her grades. Well-paced nonlinear chapters feature flashbacks to Chase and Lia’s tender courtship and its eventual unraveling, offering ardent depictions of mental illness, grief, and the frequent crushing pressure to succeed. Ages 14–up. Agent: Kerry Sparks, Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary.