Allison, one of six children who survived the mass suicide of a cult five years before, returns home when one of the other survivors is found drowned on dry land. The teens haven’t seen each other since the fire that claimed their families’ lives, and the death of the cult leader’s son doesn’t provoke a heartwarming reunion. One by one, the teenagers die in horrific and unexplained ways: blinded, burnt alive, dismembered. Allison believes the deaths were predicted by their long-gone cult leader as the harbinger of world’s end. As old mysteries are revealed, motivations make less and less sense—these flat characters clearly act only to further the horror. The cult story line is an acceptable vehicle for a stock magical thriller, but that’s all it provides. For a richer story of teen survival among cultists, stick with Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville’s Armageddon Summer (1999). (Fiction. 13-15)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4169-4007-4
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
Despite an obvious agenda, this probing study of an eighth grader’s battle with terror and frustration will hit readers close to home. The traumatized victim of a group grope at a New York swimming pool, Gina has moved with her mother to Santa Barbara, hoping to fit unobtrusively into a new school, a new life. It’s not to be: not only does word of the assault get out (and, as usual, “assault” is immediately accepted as a euphemism for “rape”), it combines with her unusually early physical development to make her a target of knowing looks and invidious rumors. Feeling powerless to set the record straight, Gina attempts to wait the gossip out. Neufeld (Gaps in Stone Walls, 1996, etc.) switches between Gina’s struggle to pin down why boys misread her so completely, and the schemes of a trio of trash-talking classmates to rape her; while the frequently shifting points of view make it hard to keep characters straight, the author puts words in their mouths and thoughts in their heads that will make many readers nod—or squirm—in recognition. In the end, one boy makes the attempt alone, Gina fights him off, and when he swaggers into school claiming to have scored, she launches a devastating counterattack by standing up in class and describing what happened in precise detail. The story may be issue-heavy, but everyone displays conflicting emotions, and both good judgment and bad. (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-7894-2624-2
Page Count: 164
Publisher: DK Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1999
The course of true love hits the rapids again in this steamy, brilliant, girl-meets-girl romance from New Zealander Boock. The first time Louie makes eye contact with Willa, back in the kitchen of Dunedin’s Burger Giant, she feels as if she’s been struck by lightning. So does Willa, but for her the feeling is familiar; she is still on the rebound from a first love affair that came to an abrupt and ugly end. Strong and weak in complementary ways, the two are plainly made for each other, and quickly become inseparable. Then Louie’s mother catches them in bed, and furiously marches Louie off to Bali for three weeks. Louie returns a wreck, borderline anorexic, frozen into feverish immobility by her inner conflicts, while Willa, unwilling to hurt and be hurt again, deliberately distances herself. There is plenty of soul-searching here, and a river of tears, but no glib answers; Boock evokes the intensity of teenage love with tender, sometimes humorous precision. In the end, tolerance and wise counsel come from surprising directions in the supporting cast; fans of melodramatic climaxes will be fully satisfied as the author brings her heroines safely through to both personal and familial reconciliations. Challenging waters, skillfully navigated. (Fiction. 13-15)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-395-97117-9
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
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