Annotation: 16 year old Jed has it all, at least he thinks he does. When a mysterious girl with pink hair enters his life and tells him a secret about his family, she turns everything he's ever known upside-down. Can Jed ever make things right?
Justification for Rejection: Not authentic. Not the characters, not the plot, not the language.
Problems with authenticity is my Number 1 reason for rejecting this book. The language used by the protagonist does not feel right. The voice is not one of a 16 year old "regular" guy. When he thinks to himself about his parents, "For God's sake, they were going to make love," (emphasis mine) my immediate thought was "Nope, no way he'd think THAT."
Character building in the book is poor. Apparently, the author is clinging to some pretty ridiculous stereotypes about "preppies" and "punk chicks".
Not well-written.
The flow of the book is off. It starts off with the protagonist talking directly as if in conversation with the reader, but the author soon abandons this device to a standard first person narrative. Details the author wants us to know are awkwardly crammed into the dialogue.
Not realistic.
Books often strain the bounds of reality. Some are not meant to be realistic, of course. This book is - it's supposed to be a Realistic/Edgy/Problem novel. But it quickly descends into after-school special territory by trying to do too much and using easy plot points to create drama. The daring rescue by canoe of a young runaway girl, a freak storm resulting in near-death, followed by an unlikely helicopter crash that finally finished off one of the main characters. Seriously?
That said, the book is not without some entertainment, and there are some teens that this story may resonate with. But it lacks too many elements of good literature to even be considered for nomination.
Genre Category: Realistic/Edgy/Problem
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