Half In Love With Death

October 15, 2015
A girl experiences firsthand the clash between innocence and knowledge in a relatively innocent place and time: Tucson in the 1960s. Jess is daring, confrontational, a rebel--everything her younger sister, Caroline, is not. But when Jess goes missing after sneaking out of the house, Caroline needs to know what happened. Maybe it's all because of Jess' unfinished request to Caroline before she left: "Would you...." Amid a simplistic web of questions and evidence, suspicion of course falls on Jess' boyfriend, the magnetic, brooding Tony. Caroline wants to believe Tony's story, wants to believe him when Tony promises her that together they will go to California and find Jess. In a facile transformation, Caroline turns herself into Caro, a girl Tony's type, a girl like her older sister. Yet when the body of another missing girl is discovered--a girl who also had a connection with Tony--Caroline is left to wonder whom to trust: Tony or herself. Caroline's narrative voice is flat and unconvincingly naive, and together with the clumsy juxtaposition of Jess' disappearance against continuing normalcy, it mutes the novel's innate suspense. Tony is never convincing as the villain, and secondary characters fail to come to life. Barely keeps the reader turning the pages until the lackluster ending. (Historical thriller. 14-18)

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November 1, 2015

Gr 7 Up-With the tone and pacing of free verse poetry counterbalanced by the taut suspense of a mysterious disappearance, this debut effort transports readers back to 1965 through the voice of 15-year-old Caroline. In the last days of summer, Caroline's sister Jessica sneaks out of the house to see her boyfriend and disappears. As the police force's search for her sister stalls, the protagonist begins to investigate on her own with the assistance of Jessica's boyfriend. As her parents try to drown their grief in alcohol and angry accusations, Caroline reaches out to a world of hippies, druggies, drop-outs, and drifters in hopes of finding Jessica alive. Rather than finding her sister, she discovers that another missing girl has connections to Jessica and her friends. Can Caroline figure out who she can trust before she becomes the next victim of a serial killer? The brisk tempo and vividly described setting of this story will grab teen's attention from the opening pages. Caroline's viewpoint is at the heart of this novel, and Ross succeeds brilliantly in conveying the confusion, passion, trepidation, fearlessness, and terror that every 15-year-old can relate to. Fans of Lois Duncan will appreciate the gentle spine tingles offered here. VERDICT The power and beauty of the prose make this novel a standout that will be a positive addition to junior high and high school fiction collections.-Kelly Kingrey-Edwards, Blinn Junior College, Brenham, TX

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