I knew this book had to be decent--it was a finalist for the 2009 National Book Award for Young People's Literature. But, whoa, I didn't expect it to hit me this hard. Telling the story of three high school girls in an inner-city school, the book is about violence and stupidity. Dominique is a starting basketball player ticked off because her coach is benching her. Yeah, it doesn't matter that her grades aren't good enough to play--in Dominique's eyes it's the coach's fault, not hers. She has major anger management issues, and when a girl gets in her "space" before school, Dominique says she's going to beat her up after school. And that's it. Nothing really happened except for Dominique having a bad day.
Trina is the bouncy, selfish girl who had no idea what Dominique had planned for her. She's vain and proud of her looks and artistic ability. She's so selfish, her tale doesn't seem realistic. Are any high school students that self-confident and absent of self-doubt?
Letitia is the unfortunate girl who hears the threat and must decide whether to do anything about it. She's in love with her phone (has even named it) and her morals, um, aren't really there.
It's funny how I ended up hating Letitia more this morning. I mean, she could have done something, but didn't, and her uncaring nature makes me hate her. Dominique, at least, has had a rough life. She has anger problems for a reason. Letitia has a decent mother (it seems) and somehow turned out stupid. Ugh.
I'm debating nominating this for the PPYA list, but I'm not even sure if it falls under bullying. It's just stupid girl violence. Stupid. Stupid.
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