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This month The Edge of the Forest reviews Young Adult novels
centered on the trials and tribulations of the school experience. One of the novels is realistic, the other has a touch
of adventure. Enjoy!
Crushed
by Laura & Tom McNeal
reviewed by Camille Powell, Book Moot
Audrey does not have a mother, and her surrogate mom/housekeeper is away. Her father is facing terrible financial problems
he is trying to keep secret from Audrey. Audrey envisions herself and her best friends, Lea and C.C., as the Three Little
Maids of Gilbert and Sullivan fame. She listens to "The Mikado" in her car.
Wickham does not have a father. His delusional mother clings to the idea that someday Wickham’s biological father will
divorce his wife and join them in family-hood while her son battles migraines and memories from his past.
Clyde has a loving family, but he is losing his mother to cancer. He works as a waiter at the country club and worships
Audrey from afar. He is actively searching for personal information about his classmates on the Internet.
The three are also adrift in their personal lives. Audrey’s father is never home and, so, she is alone most of the time.
Wickham is rootless and bills his distant father for all his expenses. Clyde is in a terrible no-man’s land hoping his
mother will recover, fearing she will not, and waiting for an outcome he dreads.
Audrey, Wickham, and Clyde struggle to stay afloat in the confusing and sometimes scary and dangerous world of high school.
There are thugs waiting to waylay unsuspecting students in the halls and parking lot. An underground newspaper, The
Yellow Paper, spills deeply held secrets of the students and teachers.
When Wickham enrolls at Jemison Hall, Audrey is completely smitten. He is very tall, very handsome and at ease with the
world. Audrey must decide how far she is willing to go for her new boyfriend.
The characters are crushed as in "romantic obsession" and crushed emotionally by the events threatening to overtake them.
Like a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, characters are not who they appear to be. Identities are hidden and relationships
become tangled.
The reader aches for Audrey and Clyde, feels some pity for Wickham and hopes for a happy G&S ending to the story. There is
no spirited chorus singing at the end, but the conclusion is satisfactory.
I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You
by Ally Carter
Reviewed by Liz Burns, A Chair, A Fireplace and a Tea Cozy
Cammie Morgan has your typical teen problems: conflicts with some girls at her school. It doesn’t help that her Mom's the
headmistress. There's a tough new class she has to pass, taught by someone who is a little too friendly with her widowed
mother. And there's the townie she just met, Josh; if he knew she went to the exclusive boarding school, The Gallagher
Academy for Exceptional Young Women, he'd think she's just another spoiled rich girl and wouldn't give her the time of day.
But there's one something Josh doesn't know. Gallagher Academy is a special school… for spies. Not only that; Cammie's a
legacy, daughter of a "Gallagher girl," with a lot to live up to. These girls aren't being taught to be the business people
and world leaders of tomorrow; they're being taught to be the super spies who will be conducting corporate espionage and
saving the lives of world leaders.
Strap yourself in for a fun, action-packed adventure, as Cammie tries to pass covert-ops while keeping her spy school a
secret from the typical and normal (and did I mention handsome?) Josh.
I'd Tell You… is a fun teen chick-lit book set in a world that is a little bit Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a little
bit Alias, and a little bit 007. Just as with Buffy, with the well known metaphor that High School Is Hell, here the
metaphor is that life is like spy school: there is a part of all our lives that we are trying to hide. How much do we
reveal to those we love?
But it's not always that serious. Cammie juggles her talent and drive to succeed with her dream of a normal life, one where
fathers don’t disappear during top secret missions. She wants to be loved and accepted for who she is, but she's afraid to
tell the truth about herself to Josh, or to tell her mother the truth about Josh.
Carter's spy school is over the top, believable, and fun, with its secret passageways, weapons stash and chemical labs. The
Gallagher Girls are the unknown heroes, speaking a dozen languages, with enough gadgets to make James Bond jealous.
I especially loved the little bits of Gallagher Girl history that crop up here and there: from the school founder, Gillian
Gallagher, who saved President Lincoln from the first assassination attempt (the one you don't read about) to the
revelation that duct tape was invented by a Gallagher Girl. If you want to apply, you'll need Level Four clearance.
I'd Tell You I Love You, but Then I'd Have to Kill You will be released on May 1, 2006.
Crushed, by Laura and Tom McNeal. Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2006. ISBN: 0-3758-3105-3.
I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You, by Ally Carter. Hyperion, 2006. ISBN: 1-4231-0003-4.
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