Burnout

Starred review from July 1, 2011

A high-school junior falls in with a reckless companion who leads her into a dangerous lifestyle in this gritty, suspenseful character study.

Nan thinks she might be a ghost. She wakes up in a subway train with no memory of how she got there. It is the day after Halloween, and she's wearing a bizarre dress and skeleton makeup she can't remove. Vrettos divides chapters between "Today" and "Remembering," as Nan begins to piece together the events that led her to that subway. She hasn't seen her alcoholic best friend "Seemy" for six months, ever since Nan got out of rehab and promised not to drink again. As the story advances, readers learn more about the nonconformist lifestyle the two girls enthusiastically embrace as well as Nan's insecurities. The author continually maintains an atmosphere of intrigue, however, as readers begin to see that Nan herself really isn't as extreme as her actions. When Nan's memory finally returns, the story becomes a suspenseful life-and-death chase. It all adds up to an insightful portrait of a girl who loves her family but has hit her rebellious stage and has spun out of control; it's a superb character study of a courageous girl trying to find her way.

Stark, compelling, perceptive: a winner. (Fiction. 12 & up)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Starred review from October 1, 2011

Gr 9 Up-Nan has been clean for awhile now. After months of drinking heavily that culminated in a night when she almost died, she willingly went to rehab, got sober, and went home. But now she's waking up in the subway in a Halloween costume gone wrong, skeleton makeup on her face, and absolutely no idea how she got there or what happened the day before. Did she relapse or is something sinister going on? And, what happened to her friend Seemy? In this exciting and fast-paced thriller, readers get to know Nan through a series of flashbacks that are interspersed with the nightmare she's in now-scared, alone, and unable to remember anything from the day before. She tries to retrace her steps as best she can by going back to places that were important to her and Seemy before she went to rehab and she and Seemy drifted apart. Although at first readers might think that all that's important is the mystery of Nan and Halloween night, they will soon be pulled in not only by Nan's current predicament, but also by the chain of events that led to her implied downfall. The book serves as an in-depth analysis of Nan herself, and readers will become engrossed in her story and the decisions that led her to this breaking point. The novel is gripping and will keep readers glued to their seats, wanting to know if Nan will ever remember what really happened on that terrifying night.-Traci Glass, Eugene Public Library, OR

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.