Girl on the Verge
Page 23
But it’s not over. She’s not done.
“You and me, we’re the girls who walk between lives. The girls who live between worlds. We can change our appearances, Kan. We can make different friends, adopt different personalities. But we can never change our core. We will never belong.” She smiles, and her teeth flash under the fluorescent lights. “By definition, we can’t. You see, that’s who we are. We’re the girls in between.”
“You’re wrong, Jane.” As I stand there, looking at her, I’m more certain than ever that I’m right. “You see, I used to think just like you. I used to feel that because I was in between worlds, that I was part of neither. Now I know the truth.” I reach up to my collarbone and touch the bare skin there, where I can still feel the weight of gold. I’m not wearing any jewelry today, but I don’t need to. I remember how the necklace feels. I understand, at the core of my being, what it means. “Different worlds aren’t mutually exclusive, and you don’t have to pick one world over another. I can choose to belong to both—or neither. Or make my own world altogether.”
I lift my chin. “I’m not a girl in between. I’m a girl on the verge. Of new adventures, of new possibilities. I can be whoever I want to be. And now, I know that I’m not alone. And maybe, just maybe, I never was.”
Acknowledgments
I’ve wanted to be an author ever since I was six years old, but I grew up believing that if I wanted to be published, I would not be able to write about characters who looked like me. I couldn’t be any happier that I was wrong.
First and foremost, I would like to thank Kensington Publishing for making my unacknowledged dream possible. My heartfelt thanks to Mercedes Fernandez, who championed this idea from the beginning, and to my editor, Alicia Condon, for her insights on this story. Thank you, as well, to my fabulous publicist, Lulu Martinez, and the rest of the team at Kensington for turning this manuscript into a book.
Huge thanks to Beth Miller, agent extraordinaire. I feel lucky every day to have you on my side.
Thank you to Meg Kassel, Abigail Hing Wen, and T.A. Maclagan for helping me make this book so much better. I am very grateful to Brenda Drake for encouraging me every day that I was writing this story. I am also indebted to Vanessa Barneveld and Denny Bryce for their constant support. Huge hugs to my writing groups for giving me a community.
The biggest thank you in the world to my family, the Hom-pluems, the Dunns, and the Techavacharas. You support me at every turn, but more than that, you make me feel loved. In the end, that’s what is most important. Special thanks to my dad, Naronk Hompluem. I’ve been told I have a pretty good imagination, but I couldn’t conjure up a better father.
To Aksara, Atikan, and Adisai, the breath and joys of my life. I hope you will never feel as alone as the two girls in this book. Because you’re not. You will always and forever have me.
To Antoine, I’ve felt like a girl in between most of my life, but you put me in the center of your world, and the center of your heart, every day. Every moment.
And finally, to my lovely readers. Thank you so much for picking up my books. It means the world to me. I hope you enjoy Kan’s story!
A READING GROUP GUIDE
GIRL ON THE VERGE
Pintip Dunn
About This Guide
The suggested questions are included to enhance
your group’s reading of Pintip Dunn’s
Girl on the Verge.
Discussion Questions
1. What is a “girl in between”? How does this phrase differ from “girl on the verge”? How does Kan’s understanding of herself change as the story progresses? Have you ever felt like a “person in between” or a “person on the verge”?
2. Kan and Shelly have one thing in common: They both feel like they don’t belong. How does each character react to this feeling? At the end of the book, Shelly asserts that the two girls are the same. Is she right? If not, in what ways do they differ?
3. Soon enough, Shelly emerges as the villain in this story. But is she sympathetic at the same time? Why? If so, how does the reader’s sympathy for Shelly complicate her role as the villain?
4. When Kan puts on the gold necklace for the first time, she feels beautiful. Similarly, when Shelly wears the blouse Kan made for her, she also feels beautiful. What does beauty mean in these two instances—as opposed to cultural and media norms of beauty? Even if the feeling is sparked from an external object, is it intertwined with something internal within each character?
5. Kan is a Thai-American girl caught between cultural worlds. Whether or not you share her background, do any of her experiences resonate with you? Why and in what ways?
6. What is a microaggression? Can you identify any microaggressions in this story? Although they may be subtle, how are microaggressions harmful?
7. Near the beginning of the story, Kan says, “I love my Khun Yai. I always have.... And yet, the gulf between us feels as wide as the ocean between Thailand and the United States.” Discuss Kan’s relationship with her grandmother. How is it possible to feel so close and yet so distant from someone? Do you think Kan and Khun Yai manage to close this gulf between them by the end of the story? Why or why not?
8. People say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Is this true? Why or why not? When does someone take imitation too far, and where do you draw the line?
9. Kan says that “the surest way to offend [Khun Yai] is to refuse to eat her food.” Why is this the case? How are food and culture intertwined? In what ways does food represent culture?
10. There are many portrayals of friendship in this story, such as Kan and Shelly’s early relationship, Kan’s long-standing friendship with Ash, and Ethan’s history with Walt and the other guys. What qualities do you value most in a friendship? Is there an attribute that makes someone a candidate to be a “BFF”?
11. Kan and Ethan are immediately drawn together without knowing too much about each other. However, it is difficult to make a relationship last on initial attraction alone. What are the qualities that make them work as a couple? How does this contrast with Shelly’s notions of romance?
12. What are the relative merits of secrets versus transparency within a family? What might have been different if Kan’s family had acknowledged their secrets earlier?
Don’t miss Pintip Dunn’s The Darkest Lie, available now!
In Pintip Dunn’s gripping and timely novel, a young woman whose life unravels in the wake of her mother’s alleged suicide sets out to clear her parent’s name.
“The mother I knew would never do those things.
But maybe I never knew her after all.”
Clothes, jokes, coded messages . . . Cecilia Brooks and her mom shared everything. At least, CeCe thought they did. Six months ago, her mom killed herself after accusations of having sex with a student, and CeCe’s been the subject of whispers and taunts ever since. Now, at the start of her high school senior year, between dealing with her grieving, distracted father and the social nightmare that has become her life, CeCe just wants to fly under the radar. Instead, she’s volunteering at the school’s crisis hotline—the same place her mother worked.
As she counsels troubled strangers, CeCe’s lingering suspicions about her mom’s death resurface. With the help of Sam, a new student and newspaper intern, she starts to piece together fragmented clues that point to a twisted secret at the heart of her community. Soon, finding the truth isn’t just a matter of restoring her mother’s reputation, it’s about saving lives—including CeCe’s own....
Photo: Elizabeth Chomas
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Pintip Dunn is a New York Times bestselling author of YA fiction. She graduated from Harvard University, magna cum laude, with an A.B. in English Literature and Language. She received her J.D. at Yale Law School, where she was an editor of the Yale Law Journal.
Her debut novel, Forget Tomorrow, won the RWA RITA® for Best First Book. Her other novels include The Darkest Lie, Remember Yesterday, and the novella Before Tomor
row.
She lives with her husband and children in Maryland. You can learn more about Pintip and her books at www.pintipdunn.com