Trust Exercise

Susan Choi · b. 1969 · United States

Why it matters

A seemingly straightforward teenage affair at a competitive performing-arts high school detonates halfway through into another character's competing, unreliable memoir of the same events. Choi's National Book Award winner interrogates memory, power, and who gets to tell the story.

At a glance

A structural rupture midway forces readers to reassess everything the first half established.