Description
At seventeen, Jacklin Bates is all grown up. She’s dropped out of school. She’s living with her runaway sister, Trudy, and she’s in secret, obsessive love with Luke, who doesn’t love her back. She’s stuck in Mobius—a dying town with the macabre suicide forest its only attraction—stuck working in the roadhouse and babysitting her boss’s demented father.
A stranger sets up camp in the forest and the boy next door returns; Jack’s father moves into the shed and her mother steps up her campaign to punish Jack for leaving, too. Trudy’s brilliant façade is cracking and Jack’s only friend, Astrid, has done something unforgivable. Jack is losing everything, including her mind. As she struggles to hold onto the life she thought she wanted, Jack learns that growing up is complicated—and love might be the biggest mystery of all.
Review
I didn’t find this book quite as incredible as Vikki’s first two books, she sure knows how to get inside the head of teenagers and strike the core of what are the important questions to many.
Seventeen year old Jacklin (Jack) Bates lives in a dying small country town, renting with her older sister, Trudy, who has recently returned after a three year absence.
Jack is working in the local general store, but loses her job due to a lack of customers. Her parents live nearby, but she hardly speaks to them and they in turn hardly speak to each other.
She has far too much hope for her make-out interest Luke, and maybe not enough for Jeremiah, who wants to give her his heart.
It’s the relationship between these characters that makes this story so readable, as well as the character development of the gritty Jack, who you just want to find her place in the world.
The concepts are best suited to a 15+ readers.
Reviewed by Rob
