HC $16.95 (Lib)
For: YA
360 pgs.
Rating: 4
First line/s: Patrick's house was a ghost. Dust coated the windows, the petunias in the flower boxes bowed their heads, and spiderwebs clotted the eaves of the porch. Once I would have marveled at the webs -- how delicate they were, how intricate -- but today I saw ghastly silk ropes. Nooses for sawflies and katydids and anything guileless enough to be ensnared
Setting: Contemporary Appalachia, Black Creek, NC near Asheville.
OSS: 16-year-old Cat comes back to life after pulling her head into her shell for the past three years when her gay best friend, Patrick, is brutalized and left for dead.
Cat ells her story and discovers Patrick's in bits and pieces. Slowly events of the last three years and events of the last week are illuminated as she unrolls the mystery of Patrick's almost-killing. It's great to see her spirit come alive again. It's also true that not everything is ever exactly as it seems.
And big message: meth is deadly. And the way it can establish itself in a community - especially one in extreme poverty - is examined in this story.
Lots of good stuff to think about. It went fast. Good story and good storytelling.
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