CRUSHED

Audrey, Lea and C.C. are a tight-knit trio, having just transferred from an alternative private school to Jemison High. The three friends are highly intelligent and lack patience for superficial cliques, which is why Audrey can’t believe it when debonair Wickham Hill asks her out. Shortly after they begin dating, however, an underground gossip rag called The Yellow Paper surfaces, brimming with dredged-up secrets and skeletons in the closet. Clyde, a quiet and thoughtful classmate with a crush on Audrey, discovers that Wickham has secrets of his own. When he tells Audrey about Wickham’s past, she assumes Clyde is the yellow journalist. Unfortunately, Wickham isn’t the only person in Audrey’s life with secrets; her father’s fledgling—and failing—business eventually results in their home being repossessed. As the story builds to a climax, the author of The Yellow Paper is revealed, and Audrey learns who her true friends are. Though the characters aren’t particularly memorable, The Yellow Paper is a convincing plot device portraying the devastating effects of secrets and the resilience of people who have been crushed. (Fiction. YA)