Looking for JJ

Anne Cassidy

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2004

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-4

Part 1, Chapters 5-7

Part 1, Chapters 8-10

Part 2, Chapters 11-13

Part 2, Chapters 14-16

Part 2, Chapters 17-19

Part 3, Chapters 20-22

Part 3, Chapters 23-26

Part 4

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Part 3, Chapters 23-26Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 3: “Alice Tully”

Part 3, Chapter 23 Summary

Frankie, Alice, and Sophie go to the beach together. Sophie chats about her school and her friends. She has a new best friend named Charlie, and they’ve decided to go vegan together. While at the beach, she receives a text message from Jill asking her to call her as soon as possible. They all ride the bus back together, and Alice goes upstairs to take a bath and call Jill. Jill tells her that the news has been leaked at the paper, and the story will be published in tabloids tomorrow. She reflects that they “had thought they could get away with it” but that they weren’t able to after all. Jill tells her that Rosie is on her way to pick her up, and she steels herself to tell Frankie and his family the news.

Part 3, Chapter 24 Summary

After her bath, Alice sits down with Frankie in her room. She tells him that her real name is Jennifer Jones, and she killed her friend when she was 10 in “a moment of madness” (281). At first, Frankie is shocked and can’t believe what she’s saying. He is now uneasy with her around Sophie and protective of his little sister. Rosie arrives and takes her home.

Part 3, Chapter 25 Summary

The next morning, Alice wakes up dreading the newspapers. Rosie brings her a cup of tea, and they both notice reporters waiting outside to get a picture. Jill arrives at the house and tells Alice that her mother is on her way there and that they need to take her to a safe house immediately. A newspaper has paid Carol to have a public reconciliation or scene with her daughter.

Alice remembers how Carol used to visit her when she was at Monksgrove. While she was happy to see her mother, the visits were often upsetting. One visit, Carol took a photograph of Jennifer that was then published in the newspaper along with an interview. After that, the visits stopped because Jennifer “didn’t want them anymore” (295). On their way to the safe house, Alice gets a glimpse of her mother’s face in a car heading to Rosie’s house.

Part 3, Chapter 26 Summary

Alice and Rosie drive to a safe house run by Jill’s friend Margaret. Margaret has a small baby and a cozy, messy home. After they make small talk for a few minutes, Alice is suddenly overcome by emotion and begins to cry. Margaret feeds the baby while Rosie talks on the phone with Jill and then takes the baby up for a nap, leaving Alice and Rosie alone. Rosie breaks the news to her that she will have to go to a new placement and adopt a new name; Rosie won’t be able to come with her. Alice’s chest seems to “swell up like a balloon” (304), and she can’t believe what’s happening. Although she urges Rosie to change her name and come with her, Rosie protests that she can’t leave her own life.

Part 3, Chapters 23-26 Analysis

Alice is whisked away from her idyllic seaside trip with Frankie and thrust into a new world stripped of all her relationships and safety nets. Rosie, one of the only strong parental figures in her life, is no longer able to take care of her, emphasizing that even the most loving and devoted maternal figures cannot always protect their children from the world. Frankie, her one strong relationship with a person her own age, is no longer able to contact her. Alice was ultimately correct that her life as Alice could never continue once her identity as Jennifer was revealed. Instead, she will have to become someone new, shedding past selves and relationships both for her own safety and the safety of others. Although Alice has come closer to reconciling her own current identity with the guilt associated with her past, she realizes that the outside world will probably never be able to do so.

When Jennifer was at Monksgrove as a child, her mother’s visits were regular at first but became increasingly sporadic. On one visit, she takes a picture of Jennifer and sells it to a newspaper along with an exclusive interview, mischaracterizing Jennifer’s life there as the lap of luxury. Carol is so hungry for fame and money that she disregards her daughter; she will stop at nothing to get on the front page of the newspaper or to put a few dollars in her own pocket. After the newspaper incident, we learn that Jennifer and the staff at Monksgrove agreed that she should no longer see her mother. The mother-daughter bond has disintegrated due to Carol’s manipulation and lack of responsibility or care.

When Jill tells Alice that her mother has been paid to drive down for a public scene of reconciliation, Alice is not surprised. Even then, however, she cannot help feeling something for her mother when she catches a glimpse of her face in a passing car. Just like she couldn’t resist sending a birthday card, she can’t quite completely sever herself from her relationship with her mother, no matter how toxic. The novel continues to illustrate the central and foundational relationship between mother and daughter, the effects of which continue to persist throughout adult life.