Publisher’s Marketplace Buzz Books 2015: Young Adult Fall/Winter
Gabriella Mallory, AP student and perfect-daughter-in-training, stands barefoot on a public toilet for three hours while her school is on lockdown. Someone has planted a bomb and she is hiding. The bomb is defused but the would-be-bomber is still at large. And everyone at Central High School is a suspect. The school starts a top-secret crisis help line and Gabi is invited to join. When she does, she is drawn into a suspenseful game of cat and mouse with the bomber, who has unfinished business. He leaves threatening notes on campus. He makes threatening calls to the help line. And then he begins targeting Gabi directly. Is it because her father is the lead police detective on the case? Is the bomber one of her new friends? Could it be her new boyfriend with his complicated past? As the story unfolds, Gabi knows she is somehow connected to the bomber. Even worse, is she part of his plan. Can Gabi reach out and stop him? Or will she be too late?
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What People Are Saying
Publisher’s Marketplace Buzz Books 2015: Young Adult Fall/Winter
“An intriguing mix of a whodunit and social commentary on the tragic and all-too-common problems of bullying and teen suicide. (Thriller. 13-17)” – Kirkus Reviews
“Gripping and timely.” – Booklist Online
“An excellent choice for fans of Todd Strasser’s Give a Boy a Gun (S. & S., 2000) and Walter Dean Myers’s Shooter (2004) and Monster (1999, both HarperCollins).” – School Library Journal
Audiobook
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Excerpt
An excerpt is included in the Publisher’s Marketplace Buzz Books 2015: Young Adult Fall/Winter edition. Available for free download now for Amazon Kindle, Apple’s iBookstore, Barnes and Noble Nook, Kobo, and Google Play
What People Are Saying – Full Reviews
“Following a bomb threat at a high school, an anonymous hotline is set up to gather leads and provide students with emotional support. Two years after a much-bullied girl tragically hanged herself, Central High is rocked when an angst-ridden student litters the school with threatening notes in the form of eerily defaced playing cards. Gabi, a straight-A senior, goody-two-shoes, and model citizen, is chosen to be on the student hotline team. Here, she forms relationships with several kids outside her usual circle—one of them being Miguel, a mysterious and flirty outsider to whom she finds herself increasingly attracted. The team begins receiving creepy calls and texts, and when the bomber begins leaving notes for Gabi, she realizes that she’s a target, but she has no idea why. She doesn’t want to tell her detective father about the notes because she’s afraid he and her zealously overprotective mother will pull her out of Central. Meanwhile Gabi is worried about her depressed and rebellious sister, Chloe, and Chloe’s friend, who seems morbidly fascinated with the gun their father keeps in the house. Interspersed through Gabi’s present-tense narration are sad, desperate, and sinister diary entries from the suspect, leaving readers to attempt to suss out clues as to their author. Here, everyone’s a suspect. An intriguing mix of a whodunit and social commentary on the tragic and all-too-common problems of bullying and teen suicide. (Thriller. 13-17)” – Kirkus Reviews
“Gabriella, poster child for the perfect high school–age daughter and college bound student, stands barefoot on a public toilet for three hours while her suburban school is on lockdown for a bomb threat. No one knows who planted it, and everyone is a suspect. The school creates an anonymous crisis call center made up of students from all the different social stratas. Gabi becomes friends with people she might never have talked to before. As more teens begin to use the call center, she realizes that there are more miserable people in her school than she ever would have guessed. She also begins to suspect that the bomber is somehow connected to her. This well-written story focuses on the bystanders, who don’t actively do anything wrong but neither do they help. Interspersed between the chapters is the “Stranger’s Manifesto,” pages written in verse by the person who planted the bomb. Added into the mix are Gabi’s father, who is a detective; her sister, who has always hung out with the students on the fringes of high school society; and her mother, who is a nervous woman striving for control of everything. The pacing moves quickly, adding information and fleshing out characters along the way. Reluctant readers will stay with this one as they try to figure out who really planted the bomb. VERDICT An excellent choice for fans of Todd Strasser’s Give a Boy a Gun (S. & S., 2000) and Walter Dean Myers’s Shooter (2004) and Monster (1999, both HarperCollins).” – School Library Journal, Deanna McDaniel, Genoa Middle School, OH
“Scheerger’s sophomore novel focuses on topics that are, unfortunately, regularly in the headlines: high school bomb threats and teen bullying. Straitlaced Gabi’s senior year is off to an unexpectedly rocky start when a bomb threat puts her school under lockdown. Central High’s response involves creating an anonymous crisis line, recruiting student volunteers, including Gabi, from all over the school’s wide-ranging social structure, á la The Breakfast Club. But when Gabi starts receiving phone calls and creepy playing cards from the supposed bomber, called the Stranger, she is tasked with deciding if she can help or if she should defer to her cop dad. Scheerger establishes an authentic high school environment in which, despite the fact that student bullying is understood, nothing concrete has been achieved to curb it, and plenty of bystanders look on helplessly. Though the book sometimes suffers from uneven writing, the spliced-in verse entries from the Stranger’s Manifesto augment the tension and will keep even reluctant readers antsy to know how everything resolves. Gripping and timely.” – Booklist Online, Jennifer Barnes