Friendships.
I enjoyed this Young Adult novel, although I was not a fan of the narration, which was strangely staccato. Once I managed to adjust to this, however, I found I was rooting for the unusual albino lead character, Portia, even though she had a huge chip on her shoulder.

Portia has travelled from school to school all her life, being the daughter of a military man. The added complication of her unusual appearance has left her pretty negative about friendships, she doesn't expect any and doesn't go searching them out.
Her latest move finds her in a fairly typical American secondary school and she is very surprised to be singled out by the most popular girl; to go spying on her boyfriend whom she suspects of cheating on her. In addition, another girl approaches Portia for help with maths.
What follows is an interesting reflection on teenage friendships, with all their complexities, except that this did feel as if it had bit of a - help one another and don't judge - moral attached, which was well presented.

This would be an interesting discussion novel for young adults and I would recommend it for teenage libraries.
The only thing that did seem to be missing was any discussion about the problems of actually being albino; there was no mention of Portia's reaction to light or severe tendency to burn.

My thanks to Renegade Press and Audiobook Boom! for a courtesy copy of this book in return for an unbiased review. ( )

I just finished the book and am not sure how I want to review it. I could hardly put the book down due to the author's craft of keeping the reader wanting to know the answer to the newest mystery. Yet the book was not spectacular. I really don't mean that as a negative statement. This was a solid five star YA book.

I do believe middle school and high school girls will devour it as I did.

I just fell in love with the main character, Portia and admired her terribly. I felt sorry for the predicaments she got herself into due to wanting to be kind and respect others. Portia told herself she did what she did for acceptance, but I felt her motives were deep down compassionate even though she herself didn't recognize that.

Here is a statement Portia makes only to herself about Mindy. Mindy has claimed to be Denise's friend for years. You decide. There is a lot of hard truth in her following statement.

I think Mindy should talk to someone other than Denise. Maybe a mental health professional. Anyone with problems so severe that it drives them to hurt others in order to feel better about themselves needs help.”

Excerpt From: Mack, Debbi. “Invisible Me.” iBooks.
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