Gentlemen

Starred review from April 6, 2009
Northrop's debut is one dark ride, as events spin out of control for three friends who haven't had many lucky breaks. High school sophomores Micheal (the narrator), Tommy, Mixer and Bones are a pretty tight crew. (And, yes, that's how Micheal's name is spelled: “Mom or Dad, one of them dropped the ball on that one, probably Dad, in the hospital or wherever it is you fill out that paperwork.”) Then Tommy goes missing. It isn't the first time, so the guys aren't initially too worried, but as time passes—and following increasingly unsettling interactions with their English teacher, Mr. Haberman, during a unit on Crime and Punishment
—they begin to suspect that the teacher is involved in Tommy's disappearance. Micheal, who has an eye injury stemming from a childhood incident, is a sympathetic but unreliable narrator—something he himself recognizes (“Having a messed-up eye, you know, it'll affect how you see things”). The brutal narration, friendships put through the wringer and the sense of dread that permeates the novel will keep readers hooked through the violent climax and its aftermath. Ages 15–up.

August 1, 2009
Gr 7 Up-Micheal, Tommy, Mixer, and Bones aren't so much viewed as troublemakers at Tattawa High School as they are personas non grata. On the fringe, the four friends struggle their way through school and to survive their dysfunctional families. When Tommy disappears, his friends write it off as another one of his escapades until Mr. Haberman, their remedial English teacher, starts speaking in riddles that lead them to believe that he may have killed the boy. Despite an interesting cast of flawed misfits and an edgy concept, Northrop doesn't bring the gritty tale to its full potential because of a slogging pace and meandering narrative."Terri Clark, Smokey Hill Library, Centennial, CO"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2009
Grades 10-1 *Starred Review* This is a rare sort of book that may work just as well for reluctant readers as it will avid ones. Mike (the narrator), Tommy, Mixer, and Bones form the core of the remedial set at their small-town high school. When Tommy goes missing and their reviled English teacher, Mr. Haberman (whos trying to get them to read Crime and Punishment), starts acting awfully strange, the three remaining friends jump to some alarming conclusions. Despite the teachers Raskolnikov act, this is not a reworking of Dostoevskys classic in a modern high-school setting; rather, the book works as an amplifier of both the boys suspicions and the plots intrigue, and while readers familiar with it (or the serviceable graphic-novel version reviewed above) will certainly glean more, it is by no means a prerequisite to get caught up in the mystery. The guessing game of what happened to Tommy, how guilty is Haberman, and what are the boys going to do about it propels the action, and the well-rounded characters and their plausible obsessions provide buoyancy to the story. Laced throughout is a steely and intricate look at the permutations of adolescent friendship and the various roles that teens adopt or are assigned in both their social and academic worlds. A riveting thriller? Yep. A nuanced examination of morality? Yep again. Whats amazing is that they never get in each others way.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)