Author Memo

To: Kate Brian
From: Kara Chan
Date: March 7, 2010
Re: Private
Dear Kate,
I love this book because I think that every teenage girl is able to relate to it. Everyone has to go through the struggle to fit in and a struggle to reach our dreams. I made plenty of connections and I’m sure plenty of other people would be able to do the same too. Another thing I like about the story is that it is written in a way where there is so much mystery about the Billings girls. Since not much was said about them, it made me keep wondering if they would be nice or mean and what they were really like underneath all those rumors. I desperately had to find out more about them which made me keep reading.
Something I’d like to ask you is where you got the idea from. Is there really a private school where special people are selected to live in the same house? In some ways it seems kind of strange and a bit cruel to have only selected people living in the best house. Also, where did Thomas Pearson disappear to in the end? It was so unexpected because he told Reed he wouldn’t leave and that he would meet her the next morning. Why did he suddenly leave without a trace or notice?
One suggestion I have is not to make the ending so packed up. Plenty of important events happened within the last chapter, like Reed meeting Thomas’s parents, scrambling around wondering where Thomas disappeared to, and being invited into the Billings House, all in the last few pages. There were just too many unanswered questions and things going on that it all felt rushed and confusing.
However, overall I enjoyed the story and look forward to reading the next book in the series.