Death, betrayal, ruthless plots to seize the “crown”—all the seeds of stage tragedy take root and flourish in this clever modern-day homage to Macbeth.
Skye Kingston has always been more comfortable hidden behind the lens of her camera than out in front of it. Senior year at East Anchorage High lands her center stage in both a dangerous love triangle and a high-stakes plot to conceal what really happened the night Duncan, the captain of the hockey team, turns up dead. Skye nearly meets her match in the manipulative, power-hungry Beth, who will stop at nothing to reach the pinnacle of popularity, and that means using whatever means necessary to keep Craig, her boyfriend and prom-king-heir-apparent, away from Skye. Though Skye’s angst over whether or not to reveal what she knows about Duncan’s death grows tiresome, readers will surely cheer for this smart, reluctant heroine as she struggles to follow her heart and her head, even as those around her unravel. Unfortunately, in one of the novel’s greatest shortcomings, Duncan’s character is woefully underdeveloped. So, aside from the intrigue surrounding his untimely end, readers won’t much notice his absence.
As it turns out, high school is rife with just enough passion and treachery to set a suitable stage for some Shakespearean-level drama. (Fiction. 13 & up)
