Jennifer
Shaw Wolf
ISBN: 978-0802723529
Walker
& Co, 2012
Plot
Summary: Allie
is left battered and scared after the death of her boyfriend, Trip, in a
horrible car accident. When his truck went off the side of a cliff, she somehow
was flung out of the car to safety. She’s now in the hospital and gets to hear
all of her friends and family members giving their deepest sympathies not only
to her own injuries but to the death of her beloved boyfriend. However, she
harbors a horrible secret that she can’t tell anyone. Everyone thinks she’s
suffering from survivor’s guilt when, in fact, she can’t stand everyone making
Trip out to be a hero for supposedly saving Allie’s life (they believe he
pushed her out of the car before going over the cliff). See, Trip and Allie’s
relationship wasn’t the glamorous couple everyone thought they were. In fact,
she’s now to scared to speak the truth for fear that everyone will turn against
her and say it’s her word against the word of the Golden Boy. During their two
year relationship, Trip horribly beat her and she kept quiet about it. She
knows something happened the night of the accident and thinks that the huge
scar across her eye was not a result of the car accident but she can’t remember
anything about what happened. It doesn’t help that she just wants to move on
with her life and forget but Trip’s father is forcing the cops to reopen the
case as foul play. Soon with friends who refuse to look at her because of her
injuries, a best friend of Trip’s stalking her and making accusations, and an
old friendship and romance with the town “bad” boy, Blake, resurfacing, both
Allie and Blake start appearing as potential suspects. What is she to do?
Critical
Evaluation:
This is another traditional abusive relationship novel for teens. However, this
one does have an intriguing twist. At the book’s opening, the abuser is dead
and Allie, with her memories lost, is the victim left alive wondering if she
had anything to do with Trip’s death. The story unfolds in a series of
flashbacks to times when Trip was violent. Of course, in my opinion, the thing
that lessons the reality and seriousness of the nature of abusive relationships
is the constant author’s need to add in a new love interest for the abused
girl. This comes in the form of Blake, her old best friend, who, because his
mother had him out of wedlock and is poor, is seen as a bad influence and
troublemaker. This need to add a new love interest is so unrealistic. Why can’t
an author every just have a character focus on self-improvement and empowerment
instead of having another boy come along to make everything better. Allie is a
realistic character and in her rich, seaside village she is constantly on the
outside which shows the bias of those who are more well off being stuck up to
those they think are “below” them. The author also does a good job of entwining
the mystery element of Trip’s accident? How did he actually go off the cliff?
What really happened that night? Did Blake have anything to do with it? Was the
intent of the accident much, much eviler than anyone could expect? Readers are
left guessing until the surprising reveal at the end.
Reader's
Annotation: Allie’s boyfriend died heroically saving her
life by pushing her out of his truck that was going over a cliff. Everyone
thinks Allie is suffering from survivor’s guilt when in fact she is hiding a
desperate secret—she’s happy. Trip, her could-never-do-wrong boyfriend, had
been abusing her for two years. However, she is also scared that, because she
can’t remember the details of what happened, she might have had something to do
with the cause of the accident.
Author
Information:
Wolf grew up in the little town of St. Anthony, Idaho. She always wanted
to be a writer and wrote her first book for her little brother, sewed the pages
together and had one of her friends illustrate it. She went to Ricks College
(now BYU-Idaho) where she majored in Broadcast Communications. She was one of
the founding DJs for a small campus radio station, KWBH. She, her husband, and
four kids currently live in Lacey, Washington.
Her second book, Shards of Glass,
comes out in 2013 (Wolf, n.d.).
Genre: Realistic, Mystery
Curriculum
Ties: N/A
Booktalking
Ideas: Read the scene of Allie and Trip in the woods but stop before giving
anything away.
Reading
Level/Interest Age: 14+
Challenge
Issues: Abusive,
violent relationships
Challenge
Defense: If this book were challenged, I would make
sure the library has a Challenge Defense File ready for such a situation.
Inside the Challenge Defense File, librarians and the public could find:
·
A
copy of the American Library Association’s Library
Bill of Rights. (Can be found and printed from ALA’s website at http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill)
·
A
copy of the American Library Association’s Freedom to Read Statement (Can be
found and printed from ALA’s
website at http://www.ala.org/offices/oif/statementspols/ftrstatement/freedomreadstatement)
·
A
copy of the library’s own selection policy (my library, the La Vista Public
Library, has a policy but it is not online so I can’t link to it as an
example).
·
A
copy of the library’s citizen’s complaint/reconsideration form (my library, the
La Vista Public Library’s, form is called the City of La Vista Service Request form).
·
Copies
of reviews—both good and bad—from reputable library and publishing services to
justify why a book was selected for inclusion in the collection. These include
not only reviews from such journals as School
Library Journal, VOYA, Horn Book, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist, but also any mention of books
on YALSA lists and other copies of articles about any awards or nominations
such books may have received.
·
Include
a short rationale file for other coworkers so if the librarian in charge of
selecting materials is not available when a challenge occurs the other staff
members have some information to go by (the rational would include such
information as a short summary, what could be challenged, reviews, awards and
nominations, etc.)
·
Include
for staff members a copy of “Strategies and Tips for Dealing with Challenges to
Library Materials,” a document written by the American Library Association.
Make sure that staff reviews this document periodically so they are prepared
and know how to face such situations. (Can be found and printed from ALA’s website at http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips)
Reason
for Inclusion: An excellently written realistic fiction
title with a new perspective on abusive relationship story.
References:
Wolf,
J.S. (n.d.). About me. Retrieved from
http://www.jennifershawwolf.com/about-me.html
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