I'll leave the luggage of all your lies behind: THIS GOLDEN STATE.

This Golden State by Marit Weisenberg
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Poppy Winslow's family has five rules:

1. No one can know your real name.
2. Don’t stay in one place too long.
3. If you sense anything is wrong, go immediately to the meeting spot.
4. Keeping our family together is everything.
5. We wish we could tell you who we are, but we can’t. Please—do not ask.

Poppy does not know her parents' real names, or why they have been on the run her entire life. She just knows something really bad would happen if they got caught. It means constantly changing schools, never making friends, and not getting a cell phone or even access to the Internet. When her parents take Poppy and her little sister to California, things seem different. The house they stay in has meaning to her family. She mails in a DNA test, not fully realizing the consequences of her actions. As Poppy grows close to a classmate, she also starts to uncover some truths about her parents. Combined with the results of her DNA test, everything unravels all the hard work her family has done to stay hidden all these years--and reveals some shocking truths about the past.

"If I could pinpoint the moment things changed, it was as simple as this: a high school library in Illinois, cozy, me working at a table with my science-fair group."

Oh this book was such a fun surprise! I could not put it down; it was mesmerizing. I found myself completely caught up in Poppy and her family's story. Who on earth were her parents? What did they do? Why would they force their children to go through such lengths to protect their identities? Why would their kids--especially Poppy, nearly eighteen--go along with it? The book is part mystery (unveiling all those answers) plus part character-driven coming of age tale as Poppy grows up, learning about herself. She's spent her entire life putting her family first, but is that really the best thing for her?

I loved learning more about her parents' backstory and also delving into Poppy's relationship with Harry, the boy she meets in math class and starts to fall for. The family dynamic in STATE is complicated and complex, but interwoven so delicately. Weisenberg also makes some timely and intriguing points about our digital footprint and how DNA can link people together.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It's different, with fascinating family dynamics and a really riveting plot. 4.5 stars.

I received a copy of this book from Flatiron Books and Netgalley in return for an unbiased review.

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