About This Book;
Marit Weisenberg’s This Golden State follows a family on the run, a restless teenage daughter hungry for the truth, and the simple DNA test that threatens their carefully crafted world
The Winslow family lives by five principles:
1. No one can know your real name.
2. Don’t stay in one place too long.
3. If you sense anything is wrong, go immediately to the meeting spot.
4. Keeping our family together is everything.
5. We wish we could tell you who we are, but we can’t. Please―do not ask.
Poppy doesn’t know why her family has been running her whole life, but she does know that there are dire consequences if they’re ever caught. Still, her curiosity grows each year, as does her desire for real friends and the chance to build on something, instead of leaving behind school projects, teams, and crushes at a moment’s notice.
When a move to California exposes a crack in her parents’ airtight planning, Poppy realizes how fragile her world is. Determined to find out the truth, she mails in a home DNA test. Just as she starts to settle into her new life and even begins opening up to a boy in her math class, the forgotten test results bring her crashing back to reality.
Unraveling the shocking truth of her parents’ real identities, Poppy realizes that the DNA test has undone decades of careful work to keep her family anonymous―and the past is dangerously close to catching up to them. Determined to protect her family but desperate for more, Poppy must ask: How much of herself does she owe her family? And is it a betrayal to find her own place in the world?
*Review Contributed by Olivia Farr, Staff Reviewer*
THIS GOLDEN STATE is a riveting YA family drama/mystery. Poppy and her family have spent her entire life on the run from something big – and something she knows nothing about. Her family has always come first, and her dreams are merely to keep her little sister safe. Whenever her parents seem to get spooked, they uproot their lives and move to another town. She has never really been allowed to have friends, see movies in the theatre, or anything else children would typically do. She has sporadically attended school, and she loves math.
Something has changed, and her family is heading to California – a move that seems both wrought and exciting. Poppy does not know what is different, but she knows that everything is changing. She convinces her parents to let her take a math class she is excited about, and she sees the possibilities for her future – which feel more like impossibilities due to her family. Poppy wants answers, and since her parents will not give her any, she decides in the spur of the moment to take a DNA test – without really understanding what the consequences could be for her family on the run.
What I loved: This was an absolutely riveting and unputdownable read. The mystery of Poppy’s family and who her parents were as well as why they are going to California really propels the book forward and keeps readers guessing. On top of that, the plots around her future, college decisions, and who she wants to be when she grows up, versus protecting her family are a reflection of the decisions made by other teens around her age and highly relatable. The romance on top of all that makes this a highly compelling read. In the class that Poppy is taking, there is another student, Harry, who changes everything for her – and has his own baggage and family issues to work out.
The themes around family (nuclear and extended), what is really important, friendship, heritage, emotional/verbal abuse (another character), forging your own path, the way the past can haunt the present, and the dreams we hold for ourselves are really thought-provoking and make this a highly compelling read. Similarly, the characters are well-constructed. Poppy really comes to life as the narrator of the story, and through her, her parents and Harry are really fleshed out. Poppy is someone driven by love for her family and who carries a lot of guilt for wanting more out of her life. Her parents have tried to give her what normalcy they could, but they are hyper-focused on their goal of being able to raise her and her sister, providing a loving home first and foremost – but with a past that they are afraid will catch up to them at any moment. Harry is another complex character who is struggling with the weight of parental expectations and forging his own path and relationships, but also dealing with the guilt of not always meeting those expectations.
Final verdict: With compelling characters, thought-provoking themes, and a riveting plot, THIS GOLDEN STATE is a highly devourable and shocking YA contemporary/mystery read that will keep readers turning pages until the satisfying end. Highly recommend for fans of family drama and mysteries.
*Find More Info & Buy This Book HERE!*
