Clark continues Courtney’s saga (Truth or Dairy, 2000) as she endures her “freshperson” fall semester at Cornwall Falls College, Wisconsin. Diary format lets readers revel in the teen-speak of her “tragic” circumstances: charmed away from her native Colorado by a generous financial-aid package, Courtney is a vegan trapped 1,000 miles from the nearest fruit smoothie. Nobody understands the torment of being in a long-distance relationship with perfect boyfriend Grant. As if anybody could understand the spirit-crushing experience of working for minimum wage at the fast-food chain, The Bagle Finagle. That Courtney is self-involved would be an understatement, but the light-hearted tone and the recognizable archetypes are just humorous enough to keep the pages turning. Clark has a gifted ear for language and an eye for the details of current teenage trends. Late-adolescent behavior is wickedly revealed as Courtney begins to get involved with school activities such as the Campus Badicals who are protesting the initials of the school. As the semester progresses, she begins to discover that first impressions are not always the most reliable way to choose friends—especially when her kindred spirit soulmate turns out to be someone completely different and her bovine-loving roommate ditches her boyfriend to save Courtney from spending Thanksgiving alone in the dorm. A hoot. (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-06-029525-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes...
In a riveting novel from Myers (At Her Majesty’s Request, 1999, etc.), a teenager who dreams of being a filmmaker writes the story of his trial for felony murder in the form of a movie script, with journal entries after each day’s action.
Steve is accused of being an accomplice in the robbery and murder of a drug store owner. As he goes through his trial, returning each night to a prison where most nights he can hear other inmates being beaten and raped, he reviews the events leading to this point in his life. Although Steve is eventually acquitted, Myers leaves it up to readers to decide for themselves on his protagonist’s guilt or innocence.
The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes written entirely in dialogue alternate with thoughtful, introspective journal entries that offer a sense of Steve’s terror and confusion, and that deftly demonstrate Myers’s point: the road from innocence to trouble is comprised of small, almost invisible steps, each involving an experience in which a “positive moral decision” was not made. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: May 31, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-028077-8
Page Count: 280
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1999
Eddie, a young Mexican-American scraping by in the mean streets of Fresno, California, counts four dead relatives and one dead friend in the opening, in-your-face lines of this new novel from Soto (Snapshots from the Wedding, p. 228, etc.). In bleak sentences of whispered beauty, Eddie tells how he dropped out of vocational college and is attempting to get by with odd jobs. His aunt and friends want him to avenge the recent murder of his cousin, but Eddie just wants to find a way out. Everything he tries turns soura stint doing yard work ends when his boss's truck is stolen on Eddie's watchand life is a daily battle for survival. This unrelenting portrait is unsparing in squalid details: The glue sniffers, gangs, bums, casual knifings, filth, and stench are in the forefront of a life without much hope``Laundry wept from the lines, the faded flags of poor, ignorant, unemployable people.'' Soto plays the tale straightthe only sign of a ``happy'' ending is in Eddie's joining the Navy. The result is a sort of Fresno Salaam Bombay without the pockets of humanity that gave the original its charm. A valuable tale, it's one that makes no concessions. (glossary) (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-15-201333-4
Page Count: 148
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1997
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