QUAD

When gunshots ring across the quad, six students from disparate groups find themselves stuck in the school store together. While the premise holds appeal, the narrative fails to deliver much beyond stock clichés and a contrived plot. Indeed, chapters bear titles such as “Freaks” (skaters), “Jocks” (all on steroids), “Preps” (actually mean girls) and “Techies” (one of whom is actually a journalist). The characters with the most interesting stories are secondary, and the only one with real backstory is Stone, the bullying jock who is the likeliest shooter suspect. The fear never amounts to much and tension is maintained only by the inexplicable lack of cell phones once the shooting begins—even though students had been texting during class. Unlikable and inconsistent characters and the lack of resolution will frustrate readers who do persevere through these issues. For thought-provoking and sophisticated examinations of school violence from the inside, try Walter Dean Myers’s Shooter (2004) or Jim Shepard’s Project X (2004) instead. (Fiction. YA)