NO RIGHT TURN

Jordan was 13 when his father killed himself with a shot to the head while they were home alone. It’s three years later. Jordan doesn’t talk about it, or much of anything else. He doesn’t play sports or hang out, still locked inside his intense anger at his dad. But when his mother begins to date a man with a 1976 Corvette Stingray, Jordan can’t help but be fascinated. He’s so taken that he sneaks the car out, only to meet Becka, the local cheerleader goddess. Becka, despite her looks and popularity, is a lovely girl with a large family, a sibling with Down syndrome and a genuine interest in Jordan. He, of course, thinks she’s only interested in the ’Vette. Told in the first person, Jordan’s web of lies about the car leads to a rather scary climax and some tentative resolution about cars, girlfriends and life and death. Readers will be taken with Jordan’s matter-of-factness about his sorrow and isolation, and how he locks himself up in lies. (Fiction. YA)