Novel tackles political issues and budding romance
“The Wrong Side of Right” by Jenn Marie Thorne (Dial Books, 400 pages, $17.99)
Within the first few pages of this young adult novel, 16-year-old Kate Quinn discovers she is the love child of a United States senator who is the Republican nominee for president.
Who wouldn’t want to keep reading?
It’s one heck of a premise, particularly in today’s intensely political climate, where a president’s daughters’ facial expressions during a turkey-pardoning ceremony make international news.
In her debut novel, author Jenn Marie Thorne explores what happens behind the scenes of a major political campaign and how politicians’ children handle their fishbowl lives.
Kate’s mother has recently died in a car accident, and she is living with an aunt and uncle in South Carolina while she finishes her junior year of high school. (APUSH test, anyone?)
After learning that her father is a Republican senator from Massachusetts who has just secured his party’s nomination for president, she decides to spend the summer on the campaign trail getting to know him, his wife and two younger children.
What follows is a story with all the twists, turns and budding teen romance of a Meg Cabot novel – with a hearty dose of “West Wing.”
Kate struggles to come to terms with her father’s hard-line stance on immigration, particularly since some of her childhood friends in California are the sons and daughters of undocumented immigrants.
When one of those families faces deportation, she must decide: Does she trust the new family she barely knows? Or seek help elsewhere and try to right some wrongs?
Set against a backdrop of modern politics, poignant family drama and awkward-but-exhilarating first love, the novel offers a surprising, well-written story with characters young readers likely will relate to.
On some occasions the characters talk in political sound bites and the dialogue sounds like a “Meet the Press” panel discussion. But Thorne’s overall message is neither cliche nor preachy, and the plot has enough surprises to keep readers interested.
It may even prompt them to further explore politics – or at least think about the human faces behind political machines.
Reach Suzanne Perez Tobias at 316-268-6567 or stobias@wichitaeagle.com. Follow her on Twitter: @suzannetobias.
This story was originally published March 28, 2015 at 6:35 PM with the headline "Novel tackles political issues and budding romance."