Lo, Catherine.
How It Ends.
Houghton Mifflin/Harcourt
Brace 2016 289p $17.99 ISBN 978-0-544-54006-4
ms/hs
Conflict
E-BN
This excellent realistic novel follows the course of a
high-school friendship between two tenth-grade girls, from its promising
beginning through its demise and back again. The author, a counselor who works
with at-risk teens, really knows how her characters would think and feel, and
is able to give voice to their inner struggles very effectively. The story
begins when Annie, the new girl, decides to befriend Jess, who has been bullied
since the seventh grade. They cheer each other on through life’s vicissitudes
and really bring out the best in each other, until the “popular kids” begin to
intervene in their friendship and wreak havoc on it. The author has a real ear
for the way kids talk and relate to one another, and a feel for the anatomy of
a friendship and the ways in which it can be subverted and undermined in
sometimes subtle ways. The characters are very well drawn, and the ways in
which high-school kids can boost and hurt each other’s egos are very
realistically demonstrated. Certainly it is not an action-packed novel, but it
will appeal to those who love realistic fiction, particularly girls. Highly
recommended for grades 8-12.
Summary: This excellent realistic novel follows
the course of a high-school friendship between two tenth-grade girls, from its
promising beginning through its demise and back again. The author, a counselor
who works with at-risk teens, really knows how her characters would think and
feel, and is able to give voice to their inner struggles very effectively.
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