Hancock Park »

Isabel Kaplan was born in Los Angeles, where she attended Marlborough School. She is now a student at Harvard University. This is her first novel.

Becky Miller lives in the best neighborhood, goes to school with the children of movie stars, and has her psychiatrist on speed dial. She may live in the City of Angels, but this sixteen-year-old’s life is far from perfect. By day, Becky navigates the halls of one of L.A.’s most elite schools, and at night she deals with sparring parents—all without the help of her best friend, who just moved across the country. So when the coolest girls in school suddenly take an interest in her, Becky hopes her life is about to take a turn for the fabulous.

Written by someone who has seen it all, Hancock Park follows the crazy lives of Hollywood teens, as one girl tries to stay sane in the middle of it all.

Publishers Weekly

Set in Los Angeles, teenage author Kaplan's debut details 16-year-old Becky's struggles with her parents' divorce and her social life after her best friend moves to New York. Readers (and Becky) learn of her intelligence when she takes an IQ test and has high results, but little in her observations and narrative suggest a genius to accompany that score (her involvement in the Model UN at all-girl's academy feels forced). Her desire to be popular fluctuates between her scorn for the Trinity, the popular girls in her junior class, and her joy at hanging out with them ("I had gone out with an extremely attractive, very popular boy, and I was friends with the most popular girls in school. Life was good"). Slowly, Becky makes some positive changes-she switches from a prescription-happy psychiatrist to a more effectual one, and realizes her new boyfriend is a jerk. Her problems will resonate with and be familiar to readers, though her personal growth feels rushed and does not build in a realistic way. Ages 14-up.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.