Handcuffs

November 15, 2008
After 16-year-old Parker Prescott is caught by her parents in a pair of handcuffs with the hottest boy at school, she is grounded indefinitely. This gives her endless time to ruminate about her family 's recent financial downfall, her perfect older sister 's failing marriage, her little brother 's ADHD and her tortured past with unnamed Hottie, with whom she is unhealthily obsessed. She also has to contend with a hateful classmate blogging lies about her, the question of whether or not she will lose her virginity to badboy Hottie and what will happen if she does. The author tries to create an atmosphere of claustrophobic obsession with Parker 's densely written present-tense moment-by-moment narration. But the result is an interminable list of repetitive thoughts that often slow the action to a standstill. The sluggish climax and too-neat ending will cause patient readers who hung in for all 300-plus pages to feel that they received little reward for Herculean effort. Overwritten and under-plotted. (Fiction. 14 & up)

(COPYRIGHT (2008) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

January 1, 2009
Gr 9 Up-Parker, 16, is the quiet, reserved middle child between little Preston and golden girl Paige. So why is her ex-boyfriend unbuttoning her blouse and handcuffing her in her father's study? Her parents walk in, ground her for life, and it all ends up on her ex-best-friend's blog. The real problem, though, is Parker's attachment to the boy. Character development is excellent, especially of the family. The descriptions of Parker's ADHD brother are humorous yet tender, her mother is uptight but not a caricature, and Paige insults Parker as only an older sister can. The teen's voice, too, is natural and steady. The ex-boyfriend, unfortunately, is flat in comparison. Though the point may be that Parker's obsession has more to do with her insecurities than his charms, their lack of chemistry fails to drive the plot or engage readers. The side plots, about Paige's alcoholism, a stalking neighbor, and the family's money troubles, are much more interesting. Still, Parker's sexual candor is refreshing; she states her desires in a way usually reserved for male protagonists. The author describes the new-media gossip mill and insular suburbia convincingly. There's a lot going on in "Handcuffs", but Griffin manages to tie the strings together clearly and cleverly to a satisfying conclusion."Johanna Lewis, New York Public Library"

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