Golden [Paperback]

Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 25, 2006

When Lissy James moves from California to Oklahoma, she finds herself in the middle of a teenage nightmare: a social scene to rival a Hollywood movie. And if understanding the hierarchy of the Goldens vs. the Nons isn’t hard enough, Lissy’s ever growing Aura Vision is getting harder and harder to hide, and if she’s not careful, she’s going to become a Non faster than you can say “freak.”

But it’s becoming clear that Emory High has a few secrets of its own. Around the halls, the term “special powers” goes way beyond one’s ability to attract the opposite sex, and there may be something more evil than the A-crowd lurking in the classrooms. Lissy can see a lot more than the average girl, but she’s about to learn the hard way that things aren’t always as they appear and you can’t always judge a girl by her lip gloss.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up–At Oklahoma's Emory High, students belong to one of two social groups: the Goldens–the beautiful, popular, and equally hateful–and the Nons, short for non-Goldens, or generally nonexistent. New-girl-in-town Lissy James struggles not only with this rigid hierarchy, but also with an extrasensory perception that allows her to see various colors surrounding other people. As Lissy's Sight becomes more acute, she begins to realize that evil lurks in the halls of her school, and, with the help of her sister and two acquaintances, she saves several classmates and family members from certain death. While combining the supernatural and chick-lit/mean-girl genres into one novel makes for an interesting premise, this book is plagued with structural problems. Some of the plot lines are extraneous, and there is so much going on that the story becomes muddled. The actions of several characters are either unconvincingly explained or ignored altogether. Finally, the book is overly long, and the incessant references to auras slow down the action. Teens interested in supernatural fiction are better served by one of Lois Duncan's engaging titles. Those who enjoy reading about popularity struggles should try Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl (Knopf, 2000) or Gail Giles's Shattering Glass (Millbrook, 2002).–Rebecca M. Jones, Fort Myers-Lee County Library, FL
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

A Native Oklahoman, Jennifer Lynn Barnes is a senior at Yale University. She wrote Golden at the age of 19, and her second novel, Tattoo, is due out in 2007. She lives and writes in New Haven, Connecticut.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Paperback: 247 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (July 25, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385733119
• ISBN-13: 978-0385733113
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #786,330 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm a Jennifer who goes mostly by Jen, an Oklahoma girl who's spent the past eight years living in Connecticut and England, and a writer who has a not-so-secret double life as a cognitive scientist. I love pop culture, mythology, science, superheroes, Joss Whedon, guacamole, television targeted at teenagers, and any song that I know the lyrics to. I have no sense of direction, but can read a book and shower at the same time. As is probably obvious, I do not particularly excel at writing my own bios.

I started writing professionally when I was a teenager and completed my first four published novels (Golden, Tattoo, Platinum, and The Squad: Perfect Cover) while I was in college. After graduation, I took a year off before grad school and spent that year doing autism research in England, courtesy of the generous support of the US-UK Fulbright Commission. While in England, I wrote two more books, The Squad: Killer Spirit and Fate, and tried not to embarrass myself too frequently by inadvertently using British slang with a somewhat-Southern accent.

Currently, I'm a full-time graduate student at Yale University, working on a PhD in developmental psychology, which basically means I spend a lot of time thinking about the way the mind works and designing and running experiments that probe the way that young children and non-human primates view the world. My experiences working with primates in the wild and my love of the supernatural led me to writing a book about a human girl who grows up around pack animals- specifically, werewolves. Raised By Wolves is, to me, a coming of age story that pits nature versus nurture: if you were a human girl raised in a werewolf pack, how human would you really be?

As a reader, I love strong female characters, books that blend emotional depth with sarcasm and humor, and supernatural stories that feel real. I'm a sucker for romance and search out authors who can write action sequences and violence without pulling their punches.

I'm currently hard at work on Trial By Fire, the sequel to Raised By Wolves.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FANTASTIC PAGE TURNER, August 9, 2006

By 

Amanda Hogerhuis (Enumclaw, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Golden (Paperback)

GOLDEN, the debut novel by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, centers around the story of Lissy, a middle-of-the-road teenager with just one special characteristic: Her ability to see auras.

When Lissy moves from California to Oklahoma, her gift of Sight starts to go all crazy, and she has to learn to deal, along with navigating an insane social ladder at the new school.

This book is fun, intriguing, and just won't let go. I LOVE the fantasy element, even though I dont usually read fantasy/paranormals...it works SO well in this novel that you believe every page of it. You also never see the end coming-- and by the time it does, you wish the sequel was already out.

Five stars for Jennifer Lynn Barne's debut, GOLDEN

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars enchantedly wonderful, February 8, 2007

By 

Alexandra (Medford, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Golden (Paperback)

When Lissy James moves from California to Oklahoma, she expects her new home life to be exceedingly boring. After all, what is even in Oklahoma? When she gets to Emory High, however, she realizes it is going to be anything but boring. The social structure -- Goldens vs. Nons, is both extremely prominent and hard to understand. Lissy is even more worried about Emory High discovering her Aura Vision, which is growing stronger all the time and sure to label her as a freak and a Non for life. The more time she spends there the more she realizes that the may not be the only one with "powers" and that not even her aura vision can help her know at all times who is good and who is not. Readers will cheer for Lissy as she battles evil, some in the form of her school's alpha female, some much more dangerous. This new-girl tale has far too many supernatural elements to be completely familiar, yet girls everywhere will relate, and the characters are realistic enough that you may start to wonder when you'll receive your powers.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ARTICULATE NARRATION OF A TEENAGER'S HOPES AND DREAMS, August 7, 2006

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Golden (Audio CD)

The trials and tribulations of adolescence have been addressed in song and story but perhaps not as intriguingly as in this debut novel. It was written when the author was 19, thus she had a recent and fresh take on those sometimes acutely painful years. Add a bit of fantasy, and you have a captivating story. Chick lit? Yes, but nonetheless above the expected.

There are many pitfalls for teenagers and moving is surely one of them, so it was quite a shock for Lissy James when she moved from California to Oklahoma - from the Golden State to the Sooner State and Emory High where she knew absolutely no one. Perhaps the worst part of moving from California was leaving Paul, her best friend and "partner in crime." They'd known each other since kindergarten. We hear: "And now, a thousand miles away from home and who knows how far from civilization, all I had left of Paul was the seashell he'd given me on my sixth birthday, his last words to me ("I'll miss you, Weasel"), and a memory of him on the beach. The colored lights around him had stood out, midnight blue against the stark white sand, moving in slow waves as he watched me drive away forever. "

Now, Lissy is not just an ordinary teenager as she has Aura Vision, she sees people by colors. There is one particularly frightening person at her new school - the math teacher who seems to have no color. The colors that Lissy sees are clues to the person's personalities, thus to her that particular teacher is someone to be feared.

Of course, there are cliques at Emory High, the "in" crowd and those who don't seem to matter. More problems for a newcomer.

Fortunately for Lissy she comes from a very stable home, parents who love and support her and a fine younger sister, Lexie. Still, she's alone when she goes to school and she must not only adjust to her new surroundings but also somehow discover what the math teacher might do.

Many may remember stage, screen and television actress Jenna Lamia's superb narrations of The Secret Life of Bees and Girl With a Pearl Earring. She's an articulate narrator who, in this instance, artfully portrays a teenager trying to cope. We hear Lissy's fears, hopes, and determination.

- Gail Cooke