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Overview
"Vinny was standing there just a moment ago. Standing there in the middle of the sidewalk as the night club crowds erupted onto the streets on their way home. Jasper had only turned his back to his friend for a moment, just a moment. Jasper knew it would be easy to lose sight of Vinny for just a moment, what with the lights and the crush of people and Jasper was very tired and it was very late. But Vinny didn't reappear. He was gone, completely gone." Vinny and his three best friends are young, energetic and inseparable. Fresh out of school and on the cusp of adulthood, they are intent on enjoying life. Their favorite activity is going out on the weekends, out to the clubs, to drink and dance and have fun until dawn. But on Saturday night, as Jasper is distracted for only an instant, Vinny disappears. Jasper and his other friends don't know how to react. After all, Vinny's not a child. He's never disappeared before, but he must be all right. Certainly there must be a simple explanation for where he has gone... By Sunday, Vinny is a Missing Person and the world of his friends and family turns over, showing its darker side. Judith Clarke lives with her husband and son in Melbourne Australia. Her novel The Heroic Life of Al Capsella was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and was shortlisted for Australia's NSW Premier's Literary Awards.Nineteen-year-old Vinny, one of a group of young people eking out a drab and unpromising existence in Melbourne, Australia, alarms his friends when he disappears from a nightclub.
Editorials
Library Journal
Gr 9 Up-This eerie novel, set in Melbourne, Australia, leaves readers with an incredible sense of urgency. Vinny, 19, and his mates live for the weekends, a time for club hopping. This particular Saturday night begins like any other, but ends with the teen's disappearance. The entire time lapse is a mere 30 hours as chapter subtitles tick away-"Saturday Night: 10:00," "Sunday Morning: 4:45," "Sunday Morning: 4:55"-as family and friends frantically search for Vinny. The author's development of characters and relationships elicits concern and caring from readers. Despite the fact that Vinny does return home, there are other unanswered questions and uneasy feelings. The message that teens are never too old to be leery of strangers is shockingly clear. The final chapter, "Monday Morning: 3:00," is a dark account of three of the evening's casualties, teens who do not return home after Saturday night. Despite the frequent use of unfamiliar words and phrases, explained in a glossary, the story has a universal appeal. This could have been any city, any group of older teen friends. A bit heavy-handed, but still suspenseful.-Lynda Short, Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, Lexington, KY Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.Kirkus Reviews
Clarke (Al Capsella and the Watchdogs, 1991) strews this dark comedy with caricatured adults and older Melbourne teenagers clinging to adolescence. After another Saturday night making the club scene, Jasper (who is 19 and a brick salesman by day) stumbles home, losing his mate Vinny somewhere along the way. He assumes Vinny will show up, but he's wrong; Vinny is not at any of his friends' homes, doesn't pick up his car from Jasper, and doesn't show up for his job at the car wash on Sunday. An anxious hunt begins. Using at least ten points of view, plus a variety of ominous dreams, nameless feelings of dread, and the like, Clarke creates a patchy, faintly suspenseful tale in which the cast's love lives, private yearnings, and apprehension at the looming prospect of adulthood share the front seat with the central mystery. Yet neither the satire nor the cautionary message are delivered with any particular zing. Readers may have dismissed the entire episode by the time Vinny reappears late Sunday night, groggy but unharmed, having blithely accepted a ride and a spiked drink from a seemingly inoffensive stranger, and woken up on a train with no memory of the past 12 hours. (glossary) (Fiction. 12-15)Book Details
Published
October 1, 1999
Publisher
Henry Holt & Company
Pages
154
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780805061529