In Too Deep

December 15, 2011
A girl gets caught in a lie she didn't tell but doesn't have the courage to correct in this suspenseful, well-written problem novel. Samantha wants to spark some romantic interest from her best friend and secret heartthrob Nick, so she makes a play for popularity-magnet Carter. He rebuffs her, but someone sees her leaving his bedroom in tears and jumps to the false conclusion that Carter assaulted her. Sam doesn't hear about the resulting rumors until she returns to school. Soon she feels too overwhelmed by social pressure to deny them. Sam finds many opportunities to confess the truth, but she can't bring herself to exonerate Carter. Grace makes Sam's dilemma plausible for quite some time, then at last allows her to privately confess but still find a reason to continue the charade. Complicating matters, Sam knows that because of the deception, she's likely to lose Nick, who finally has declared his love for her. Although Sam's cowardice in the face of her moral difficulty may frustrate some readers, the author effectively maintains tension as her heroine acts like a villain, and her villain is falsely accused. The story pulls no punches in its resolution, and neither does Sam in her judgment of her own actions. Honest and constantly interesting. (Fiction. 14 & up)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

March 1, 2012

Gr 7-10-At a senior party in a Washington small town, normally reserved Samantha throws herself at Carter, a popular jock, just to get her BFF, Nick, to think of her as girlfriend material. But when she's harshly rejected and seen emerging from Carter's room in tears, a rumor flies: Carter raped her. Self-absorbed Samantha at first doesn't understand what she's started, but by the time she realizes what everyone thinks-including Nick-she's just not strong enough or nice enough to clear his name. The author has a definite agenda, and does a decent job of showing how malicious rumors might start and fly out of control. Unfortunately, Samantha is unlikable. Her annoying present-tense narration consists of internal thought-churning chunks alternating with banal "teen speak." There is little wit or humor, the romance feels flat and forced, and even the obligatory telling-off-the-overprotective-and-uninvolved-dad scene fails to deliver a sense of character growth. Suggest E.R. Frank's Friction (S & S, 2003) or Francine Prose's Touch (HarperTeen, 2009) for better reads in a similar vein.-Rhona Campbell, formerly at Washington, DC Public Library

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2012
Grades 7-11 At a big party just before graduation, Sam makes one last attempt to win the affection of her best friend, Nick. She flirts with golden-boy Carter to make Nick jealous, but her plan spins wildly out of control when Carter brutally rejects her, she hurts herself in a fall, and she leaves his room disheveled and sobbing, only to be observed by a classmate who assumes Sam was raped. Stunned by the reaction of her classmates in this idyllic small town, both in support of and aggressively against her, Sam stalls in stopping the rumor. Then she discovers why many people so easily believe it and wonders if Carter deserves this fall from grace. Lies of omission and the tendency to be swept along by the actions of others are echoed in her tense relationship with her overprotective father. Sam is a sympathetic character, struggling to define herself, and teens will empathize with her, even as she digs herself deeper into the lie. An ill-fated romance and tense pacing add to the appeal. Good fodder for discussion.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)