Emancipated

March 9, 2015
With an omniscient narrative voice that moves among multiple characters, Reyes’s story of six high school students who end up living in a Venice Beach, Calif., house sans adults can read more like a script jumping between scenes than a novel. The teens, all emancipated minors, come to the house with high hopes of freedom, love, and a good time, but they also bring haunted pasts and damaging secrets. The idea of emancipation will probably appeal to a number of readers who wouldn’t mind shedding parental restrictions and input in their own lives, and Reyes (author of the Joshua Files series as M.G. Harris) certainly makes the idea of living on a California beach seem great—until it isn’t. But her characters often seem older than they are, some of their stories are unlikely (a tennis star is emancipated because his family doesn’t want to move him to Mexico with them), and the connections between them can be forced. The ending sets readers up for a sequel, though the languid pace means that getting there takes dedication. Ages 14–up. Agent: Robert Kirby, United Agents.