SOMETHING LEFT TO LOSE

Jane Ann's friend Rebbie, whose mother drinks and whose prominent father is usually away, thinks that she has nothing left to lose--and the crazy desperation that results is both what attracts her straighter friend and what makes Jane Ann's parents, guidance counsellor and even, later, her new (first) boyfriend feel that Rebbie is bad company. But Rebbie's demands, citing their friendship pledge, become something like blackmail as Jane Ann, fearful that she might try to kill herself, reluctantly agrees to cut class and play rehearsal, drink beer, and even go off in a car though at fourteen the girls are too young to get a license. Brancato can write a scene that you have to believe, her teens have more mettle than most fictional YA's, and what's more Jane Ann's conflict comes across as a real, involving dilemma and not the set-up you'd expect from such alternatives.