Fair Game

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

With frankness, insight and imagination, Tamar translates a headline-making New Jersey crime into a thoughtful and gripping novel about a mildly retarded girl in a Long Island community who is gang-raped and otherwise molested by a group of high school athletes, all-American boys with bright futures. Three diverse yet equally credible characters alternate as narrators: Cara Snowden, the boys' victim, a special-ed student who wants nothing more than to be a ``regular girl''; Laura Jean Kettering, girlfriend of one of the rapists, blinded by loyalty and unable to acknowledge the horrific truth until it almost literally stares her in the face; and Julio ``Joe'' Lopez, an athlete who refuses to take part in the assault on Cara. Tamar is careful not to tell the story in black and white--although the assailants are squarely blamed, she emphasizes the characters' confusion, allowing the reader to see the interplay of Cara's limitations and the boys' rationalizations of their own behavior. Meticulously rendered and narrated in speedy, staccato language, this novel is a must-read for any teen who has considered the implications of foul play. Ages 14-up. (Oct.)

School Library Journal

Gr 9-12-Prepare for a trip into the suburban American heart of darkness. The horrifying sexual assault of a mildly retarded teenage girl by a group of popular high school athletes who have known her since childhood polarizes the residents of an affluent community and gains national-media coverage. Told from three varying perspectives, a disturbing portrait emerges of unconscionable violence. Laura Jean Kettering, girlfriend of one of the accused, defends her boyfriend and berates the victim. Childlike and trusting Cara performs what ever acts the boys ask of her and is unable to imagine that anyone would exploit her. Joe Lopez is a Hispanic American from a low-income family; his athletic skill gives him entry into the inner circle, but he remains an outsider. He witnesses the beginning of Cara's degradation and leaves the scene, unwilling to participate in the vile events that he knows are about to happen. The novel ends with Laura Jean's break-up with Scott, and with the names of the boys involved in the incident missing from the roster of graduates. Unlike the figures in Norma Fox Mazer's seamlessly written, well-controlled Out of Control (Morrow, 1993), Tamar's participants never assume responsibility for their actions. The narrative is choppy and disjointed, the characters uneven and often one-dimensional, and the ending anticlimactic. The story, based on the much-publicized 1989 Glen Ridge, New Jersey, case, doesn't work as literature.-Alice Casey Smith, Lakewood Public Library, NJ