The Noah Confessions

Br Barbara Hall

Lynnie is turning sixteen and is sure she is getting a car for her birthday. It's what every one gets on their sixteenth at the upscale high school she attends. It never crosses her mind that it will be any different for her, after all, her dad is a successful lawyer and can certainly afford to get her a car. But she doesn't get a car. She gets a rather beat-up charm bracelet that used to belong to her mom, who died some years ago. While this is a sentimental and meaningful gift, it sure isn't a car. Yet Lynnie's dad can't understand why his daughter is a little peeved. He gives Lynnie a letter that her mom wrote when she was about Lynnie's age, hoping it will enlighten his daughter as to his reasoning; Lynnie thinks she didn't get a car because her mom died in a car crash.
Her mother's letter to Noah, a boy at her school, reveals a nightmare family. Lynnie's grandfather was a sociopath and her grandmother was depressed and losing touch with reality. Lynnie's mom witnessed her father commit several crimes and it blighted her whole childhood even to the point of blaming herself for her father's acts.
After Lynnie reads the letter, she is very upset at her parents for keeping this sad family history from her. As she faces up to the truth she begins to understand and accept the choices her parents and especially her father have made for her, even though it takes a near death experience along the way.

This novel wasn't what I hoped it would be. I guess I misunderstood the blurb that said, "And so Lynnie begins the journey to Union Grade, Virginia, into the world of her mother." I thought this meant she was going there physically. Instead she just reads her mom's letter. I thought this story would be about the contrast between her wealthy California lifestyle and the down home, back east lifestyle of a more rural setting in Virginia. It wasn't that at all. I was also hoping, since the blurbs went on to say that the author had worked on the TV shows Northern Exposure, Chicago Hope, and Judging Amy that the book would be in a lighter, funnier vein. It wasn't. So I was doubly disappointed.
It also seemed to me that Lynnie got upset way out of proportion when she discovered her mother's dodgy past. So her parents didn't tell her the whole truth of their backgrounds. What law says children are entitled to know all the family's dirty secrets? Some things are best left unsaid until the child has reached adulthood. It's better for the kid and better for the family.
Finally, I never really got what her mother's hardships had to do with Lynnie not getting a car. If her dad felt she wasn't mature enough to have a car, why not just say so: "Lynnie, I just don't feel that you are ready for the responsibility that comes with having a car." Enough said. I'm sure lots of teens have heard those words whether they are rich and privileged or have to earn the money for a car themselves.
Bottom line, this preachy novel just didn't engage me.