Bookstew

What Happens Here
By Allie Costa

What Happens Here is a coming-of-age novel you won't forget.

They had made plans, so many plans, about their futures. They would stay connected past high school, go to college together, travel the world together, maybe even marrying twin brothers. They would always be the best of friends, as thick as thieves, as close as sisters, no matter what. That is what they planned.

This is what happened instead.

The summer after her junior year, Chloe's parents announce that their family is going on a trip to Europe. Chloe begs to bring along Lindsay - her best friend, her confidante, her neighbor - but Lindsay's family can't afford it. This will be the first time in their years of friendship that the girls will be separated by such a distance. While Chloe, her parents, and her older sister Zoe board a plane, Lindsay stays behind in Vegas, just plain bored.

In Europe, Chloe sees her mother come alive, becoming bubbly, happy. She considers her father, who also seems content, though not nearly as exuberant as her mother. She hears her sister complain about being away from her boyfriend and again considers how, although she loves her sister, although blood is supposed to be thicker than water, she feels much closer to Lindsay. She meets a boy named Danny who shares her age, her Vegas zip code, and her adventures in Europe. She writes postcards to Lindsay, blissful notes from each country she visits, signed with Xs and Os.

A somewhat cryptic message from Lindsay reminds Chloe of the eye in the sky - the closed-circuit cameras in casinos and other spots to ensure the people's safety and honesty. Thanks to her father, she is familiar with the song Eye in the Sky by the Alan Parsons Project. She and Lindsay talked about the eye in the sky a lot - how one of them should perform in front of a camera one day while the other stayed at home and watched the feed - but they never went through with it, preferring to stay together on their adventures about town and perhaps blow kisses to those cameras, to the hopefully cute boys who were watching, to the twin brothers that were out there somewhere, looking for them.

Europe is bigger, bolder, broader than anything Chloe's ever seen before. This, then, is where Chloe unexpectedly starts to grow up. The Vegas replicas of European landmarks can't compare to the real thing. She feels small and tall simultaneously as she walks through historical sights, rides on gondolas, and eats exotic food. She falls for Danny, and they see the Eiffel Tower together.

She expects to slide back into her life at home easily, planning on sharing her photographs and experiences with Lindsay and then slowly coming down from her travel-love-life cloud in time to start her senior year of high school. But Vegas is not as she left it, and not all of those she left behind are anxiously awaiting her return.

They had never dreamed of this.

While the eye in the sky looms overheard, things start to look different to Chloe. She is newly aware of her surroundings, almost as if she had just moved to Vegas now, rather than three years ago. But the attractions are no longer attractive. The neon lights seem too bright. Smiles, promises, everything seems fake. There's just too much that is fake, too much that seems unreal, too much, and nothing seems right.

So many things happen here, and there, and here again. Chloe's memories blur and sharpen as she attempts to make sense of it all. She no longer knows what the future brings. Regrets cloud her dream factory, making them hard to manufacture or fix. At least one person keeps reaching for her dream: Chloe's sister, the acrobatic Zoe, who finally auditions for Cirque de Soleil. Lindsay's older brother Noah is acting differently and being difficult, but not really distant. When the truth comes out - as the truth always does - Chloe sees her parents, her sister, her friends, and herself with new eyes.

What Happens Here is Tara Altebrando's second novel for teens, following her impressive YA debut, The Pursuit of Happiness. This story is just as impressive, with realistic relationships between characters, haunting happenings, and expressive writing. There's mystery here, and drama, and heartbreak.