AFTERSHOCKS

Two teens are trapped in a California earthquake—a big one.

Aghast to discover that her mother is dating her high school water polo coach, Ruby skips practice in favor of the laundromat beside the liquor store, where she hopes she can find someone to buy her a beer. She's approaching the only other person there, a boy who appears slightly older than her, when the ground begins to thrash. Ruby dives for cover but the building collapses—she's trapped. So is the boy, named Charlie. Though they can't move or see each other, they converse over the next day and a half while injury, dehydration, and aftershocks make their situation ever more perilous. When rescuers eventually come, Ruby is reunited with her mother and friends. Told in Ruby's first-person voice, with flashbacks detailing her relationships with her mother, boyfriend, and best friend, Mila, the accounts of the quake and its immediate aftermath and the relationship that develops between Ruby and Charlie are immediate, visceral, and compelling. But the rescue comes less than halfway through the book, and after that both pacing and plot falter. Suspense leaks out, and what should be emotional reunion scenes feel underwritten. The novel defaults to an all-white cast.

The final third doesn't quite match the can't-put-down promise of the start.