Sticky Fingers

School Library Journal

Gr 7 Up-Jenna receives Early Action admission to Harvard just before Christmas break of her senior year. Her boyfriend, Scott, thinks it's the perfect time for her to let loose-literally-and have sex with him. Though she is in love with him, Jenna knows she's not ready. Meanwhile, her friend Courtney is acting out of character, shoplifting, lying, and losing too much weight. Jenna also notices that Courtney and Scott are spending time together without her and she overhears heated arguments between them. The suburban Massachusetts setting is just right but the first-person narrative grows tedious as Jenna frets copiously about Courtney and Scott's behavior. The action moves slowly and uneventfully until Scott slips a date-rape drug into Jenna's drink. At this point, the mood goes quickly from frivolous to grave and the neat epilogue doesn't fit the severity of Jenna's trauma. As in Patrick Jones's Things Change (Walker, 2004), the intended message is that even smart girls can be fooled by abusers or rapists. Though Jenna is sharper and more likable than Jones's protagonist, her Harvard acceptance is a cheap symbol of the intelligence that is never shown in her thoughts. The frothy dialogue and tongue-in-cheek prose are better suited to Burnham's teen romances than to this consciously serious and issue-driven story.-Johanna Lewis, New York Public Library Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.