Review Detail

“The Beckett Effect” by Nashae Jones is a swoon-worthy young adult novel that will grab readers’ attention and keep them invested till the end.

When main character Wren gets placed in a film class that she’s been dreaming of taking, she is upset to find out that Beckett Lane, her nemesis and bane of her existence, is also in the class. While Beckett is extremely well-liked, attractive, and charming, she thinks herself immune to all of this, as she feels she knows the real Beckett. What makes this all the harder is that Wren’s sister, Kennedy, is one of the girls who finds Beckett irresistible.

It comes about that Beckett seemingly humiliates Kennedy at a party, and Wren is not having any of it. She wants to get back at Beckett with all she can throw at him. She just has to find the perfect way to bring him down. This is where her film class comes in, as she has to come up with a great idea for a film, and a documentary exposing Beckett for the jerk her really is seems the perfect fodder for her topic.

This means that Wren has to get closer to Beckett, though, or else she can’t know the truth behind it all. She gets to know his past girlfriends and learns things that, more than anything else, surprise her. Maybe Beckett isn’t all he’s cracked up to be, and maybe, just maybe, that’s a good thing? Wren discovers that she isn’t sure she wants to know the truth anymore when she’s worried that maybe she’s been wrong all along. Yet she has to keep going in order to discover what’s real and what’s not, and that may cost her more than she ever thought possible.