Feral Youth

July 24, 2017
Nine perspectives interweave in a novel composed of divergent, unsettling stories from authors that include Brandy Colbert, Justina Ireland, Alaya Dawn Johnson, and Stephanie Kuehn. A group of delinquent teens is sent to Zeppelin Bend, an outdoor education program that dumps them in the wilderness to teach lessons about hard work and connection. There, they take turns recounting maybe-true stories in an effort to win a promised $100 from Hutchinson’s character, who guides readers through their haphazard three-day trip. A gay teen obsessed with film legends gets appropriately cinematic revenge after being spurned in Tim Floreen’s story, while Robin Talley’s eerie “Look Down” immerses readers in classic summer-camp fare: pranks, romance, and ghosts. Marieke Nijkamp’s character, Jenna, hits on the deeper truth of these interconnected stories: “If hope is a thing with feathers... then secrets are things with talons.” The kids are considered “human garbage,” as Hutchinson’s character puts it, but their choices and situations are born of sharp, complicated moments and realities. Though the voices are distinct, it’s the overall experience of disparate people finding common understanding that lingers. Ages 14–up.

July 15, 2017
Ten teenagers have been blindfolded by their camp counselors, taken into the woods, and left to find their way back to the main camp, in three days. Camp Zeppelin Bend isn't a fun summer camp. It's a mandatory camp created for teens whose lives have led them there as a last stop before jail or juvie. As a coping strategy, each teen takes a turn to tell a story, and no one knows what is true and what isn't. The main character who carries the narration of this book, Gio, prompts the storytelling challenge. In alternating chapters, written by different authors, each teen shares the disturbing experiences that led them to Zeppelin Bend. Wealthy, white Georgia shares a ghost story connected to being bullied. Jenna, also rich and white, reveals the deteriorating mental state that led her to pyromania. Tino, who's Mexican, like Gio, boasts of the actions he took to avenge his father's death in a haunting tale set in a small California college town. As the collection progresses, each story grows more fantastical, with many that allude to mythology and fairy tales. From the first sentence ("I'm not a liar"), collection editor Hutchinson grabs readers with a raw, spot-on monologue that invites readers into heavy issues teens are struggling to navigate, many with distant or absent parents. Due to the mature, often raw content, this is a book that would also be valuable for adult readers who have the courage to face the darker things teens don't tell them. A compelling, uncomfortable narrative that lets readers know that the tragedy the world can bring to teens transcends socio-economics, gender, and race. (Fiction. 14-adult)

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September 1, 2017

Gr 9 Up-Ten troubled teens share campfire stories that reveal clues about the path that led them to Zeppelin Bend, an alternative camp for juvenile offenders. Each story is written by one of several young adult fiction authors, including Tim Floreen, Marieke Nijkamp, and Suzanne Young. The pretext of bonding in the wilderness allows for the transition of one tale to the next as the teens cook a meal, strategize the next leg of their hike, or weigh in on what they've heard. Hutchinson takes on the role of Geo the narrator, egging on his peers, whose stories vary in length, style, and degree of believability. Some are sobering, such as Cody's revenge plot on his first love, a college boy who only wanted a collection of nude selfies from the boys he charmed, then dumped. Others resemble traditional ghost stories; Georgie recounts haunting voices that tormented her at an all-girl's camp where her best friend-turned-mean girl was found dead in the woods. Jaila's (possibly drug-induced) tale of being trapped between two worlds and helped back to the present by a coyote spirit-man is a ruse to make her story sound romantic and mystical, and not a glimpse into meso-American spirituality. Lucinda's account of a school protest gone wrong is a relatable story of individualism-perhaps the overriding theme of the collection. Raw language and sexual situations in some selections will steer this to YA shelves. VERDICT Edgy stories showcase the depth and breadth of styles in a new crop of writers for young adults. A good purchase for most libraries serving teens.-Vicki Reutter, State University of New York at Cortland

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 1, 2017
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Ten teenagers have found themselves at Zeppelin Bend, an outdoor education program for troubled kids. After weeks of survival training, they're dropped into the middle of the wilderness and left alone to find their way back. With nothing left to do but walk and talk, one enigmatic boy ( I don't want to say anything about me. I don't think the storyteller should get in the way of the stories ) proposes a storytelling contest. Over the course of three difficult days, the teens oblige in Canterbury Talesstyle fashion. While some of their stories seem fairly rooted in fact (one girl defies a school dress code; another ends up caught between the school drug dealer and his brother), others take less likely routes (noir-style blackmail; an embezzlement allegory by way of the Three Little Pigs), and some are downright fantastical (a coyote who was once a boy; the Spirit of Death at a summer camp). Hutchinson refers to this collection (each story is written by a different YA writer, including Robin Talley, Stephanie Kuehn, and Brandy Colbert) as a collaborative novelthe same concept as his earlier project, Violent Ends (2015). Many of the stories delve into intense darkness, and there are no easy resolutions, even as the focus rests on a group of diverse people learning to trust each other. A compelling examination of the teen psyche.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)