Name: Twenty Questions for Gloria
ISBN: 9781406363531

Martyn Bedford

When a mysterious boy bent on breaking the rules strolls into her classroom, Gloria is ready to fall under his spell. Uman is funny, confident and smart. He does whatever he likes. But Uman in not all he seems - and by the time she learns the truth about him, she is a long way from home and everyone wants to know, Where's Gloria?.

Twenty Questions for Gloria

Gloria is a bored teenaged girl who meets a mysterious new boy, Uman Padeem, who is confident and charismatic--everything Gloria wishes to be--but when they disappear together for fifteen days she learns he is not all he seems, and soon truths about him and his secrets are revealed.

Dorian Avers

Our two main characters are two angsty, "smarter than the typical teen, but does the dumbest shit" cliched characters. Gloria is unhappy with her monotonous, simple life and Uman is the new kid with a dark past and a total lack of respect for authority. This novel was already short, but it should've just been a novella or something. The cover and summary make you think it's going to be this exciting thriller, but it's pretty mundane, I guess realistic could be another word. There's all these obvious mentions of Uman's mysterious past and then when we're finally told, in a completely anticlimactic way, the events and their aftermath take up a paragraph. If you want a quick, nicely full circle YA mystery you could enjoy this one.
 Gloria's depression, or just dissatisfaction with her life, is kind of beautifully stated in the passage around page 30 where she imagines her life being swept away by a tsunami, and when she comes to the realization that she's in this seemingly never-ending unsatisfactory routine. Even Uman's mental health is portrayed pretty realistically. He has these highs and then these deep, deep lows and he's struggling.


Quotes:
* " 'Why are you still here?'...'He wanted you to go away?' DI Ryan asks. I shake my head. 'He couldn't understand why I hadn't left him.' " (230)
* " 'D'you think people leave impressions of themselves in a place?' 'Wouldn't it be weird if we left millions of shadows of ourselves wherever we went?' 'OR WHAT IF THERE ARE MILLIONS OF SHADOWS OF US IN ALL THE PLACES IN THE WORLD WE HAVEN'T BEEN TO YET?...JUST WAITING FOR US TO MAKE THEM REAL?' " (240)

At 15, Gloria longs for adventure, something beyond her ordinary suburban life. When a mysterious new boy strolls into school, bent on breaking all the rules, Gloria is ready to fall under his spell. Uman is funny, confident, and smart. He does what he wants without a care for what anyone thinks. The only people for him, he says, are the mad ones, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing but burn, burn, burn. He is everything Gloria wants to be. He can whisk her away and show her a more daring, more exciting life in which the only limits are the boundaries of her own boldness. But Uman is not all he seems. And by the time she learns the truth about him, she’s a long way from home . . . and the whole country wants to know: Where’s Gloria? For fans of Dreamland by Sarah Dessen, Stolen by Lucy Christopher, and the Mara Dyer books by Michelle Hodkin. Praise for Twenty Questions for Gloria “The witty banter . . . will appeal to teens who love books with quirky dialogue and zingy one-liners, which also provide a refreshing and authentic counterpoint to the darker themes that run through the story. . . . For fans of Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor & Park.”—SLJ “Bedford’s (Never Ending, 2014) skillful writing and unusual format will draw in teens who identify with the urge to cast off the mundane and find their place in the world.”—Booklist “Dropping clues with absolute control over the novel’s trajectory, Bedford builds tension from the initial interview to the surprising final scene.”—Horn Book “Feels like it should be a Sherlock Holmes style novel and I mean that in the best way possible because it has that allure and mystery, and yet still keeps it humble with its quirky characters, romance-on-the-side . . . it’s an amazing novel to read.”—The Guardian, UK “A gripping tale . . . should definitely be on your reading list.”—Escapades of a Bookworm (UK) “An outstanding novel which poses big questions while immersing the reader in a fast-moving narrative.”—The School Librarian (UK)

Twenty Questions for Gloria

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