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Overview
If someone hurts your sister and you're any kind of man, you seek revenge.
If your brother's accused of a crime but says he didn't do it, you defend him.
When Mikey's sister claims a boy assaulted her, his world begins to fall apart. When Ellie's brother is charged with the offense, her world begins to unravel. When Mikey and Ellie meet, two worlds collide.
This is an unflinching novel from the bestselling author of Before I Die. It's about loyalty and the choices that come with it. Above all, it's a book about love.
Editorials
Emily Bazelon
Downham's strength here is in allowing for plenty of moral ambiguity…Most daringly, especially in contrast to the often simplistic portrayal of situations like these, Downham also shows Mikey and Ellie acting on their own dark impulses.—The New York Times
Publishers Weekly
After Mikey's 15-year-old younger sister Karyn accuses college student Tom Parker of raping her, Mikey plans to avenge her. But when he goes to the Parkers' sprawling house, heavy spanner in hand, he meets Tom's younger sister, Ellie, and an attraction sparks between them. Downham's (Before I Die) sophomore novel is set in coastal England, and while there's a fair amount of detail about the English legal and school systems, as well as regional vernacular, the book's powerful themes are universal. As Mikey and Ellie's relationship deepens, and both feel forced to choose "sides," they struggle with their loyalty to their families, their feelings for one another, and broader issues of class, gender, and power. Well-drawn characters allow readers to sympathize with nearly everyone; Ellie, "the primary witness," is in a particularly difficult spot as she begins to waver about testifying for her brother ("I keep going over and over that night in my head and more stuff comes back to me, more things fit into place," she says). With no tidy solutions, it's an unflinching portrayal of love under pressure. Ages 14–up. (Sept.)From the Publisher
Starred Review, Publishers Weekly, July 18, 2011:"Well-drawn characters allow readers to sympathize with nearly everyone...With no tidy solutions, it's an unflinching portrayal of love under pressure."
Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2011:
"A tender, complex character study...Crisp, revealing dialogue, measured pacing and candid, unaffected prose round out this illuminating novel in which any reader can find someone to root for or relate to. Unforgettable."
New York Times Book Review, August 21, 2011:
"As the story builds to its tumultuous conclusion, Mikey and Ellie have to make the inevitable choice between new love and old allegiances...The hard question at the heart of this book — what would you do? — doesn’t have a single answer. For her young readers, Downham frames it remarkably well.”
Starred Review, School Library Journal, November 1, 2011:
"Downham brilliantly captures the struggle of these two star-crossed lovers as they navigate the stormy waters of family loyalty, social workers and legal systems, job and school. With touching honesty, she brings her characters to life in this poignant story of love and choice. Mesmerizing."
Children's Literature -
This quiet, compelling, and complex novel raises—and, appropriately for young adult readers, leaves unresolved—questions about love, loyalty, responsibility, and revenge. Hyper-responsible Mikey McKenzie, a working-class teenager in small-town, coastal England, struggles to keep his fatherless family together. While Mum drinks, he works in a pub and tries to fend off social workers who are trying to protect them, especially seven-year-old Holly. When his fifteen-year-old sister Karyn claims that a wealthy boy named Tom Parker has raped her, he seeks revenge. Mikey's plan, however, unravels when he meets and falls in love with Tom's sister, Ellie. While this plot could devolve into a simplistic, confrontational story line, Downham maintains ambiguity through Ellie's uncertain loyalty to her own family, who ignores her while demanding that she stand up for her brother, even after she witnesses him attacking a classmate. When Mikey's friend Jacko accuses him of abandoning his promise to avenge his sister's rape, Mikey defensively accuses Jacko of being jealous. Relationships at all levels are threatened, even those between Tom and his solicitor, when Ellie finally changes her testimony, no longer trying to protect anyone but striving to tell the truth. Parents and siblings become aware of the facts, to the extent they are discernible, in a harrowing court scene, in which Ellie, even more than Tom, is accused of lying. Readers will be thoroughly involved in the young people's dilemmas and relationships; their feelings and their understandings will be deepened. Reviewer: Cynthia LevinsonVOYA -
In the suburbs of England, fifteen-year-old Karyn was invited to Tom Parker's house after a night out. Now Karyn is saying that Tom raped her, and Mikey, Karyn's older brother, is determined to make Tom pay. When Mikey arrives on the posh side of town at the Parker's, he is surprised by the gated house, the party being planned, and most of all, his immediate connection with Ellie. Ellie is struggling to come to terms with the accusations leveled at her big brother and is grateful when she is distracted by an unknown boy at Tom's party. He seems sincerely interested in her, and she is intrigued by him. The pair realize they have something special, a way of making the other feel important and valued, that neither has had before. But knowing the reason they have met, how can they be together without someone getting hurt? The author provides glimpses into the emotional struggle of the rape victim, her family, the accused, and his family, but more than anything, this is the story of Mikey and Ellie. They are working through their individual issues and coping with their siblings' traumas while attempting to understand their intense connection. The small, well-developed core of characters has a sense of truth and helps create a sturdy backdrop for all the emotion. Almost impossible to put down once begun, the book's only misstep could be Karyn's night-to-day transformation after Ellie reveals a secret she has been keeping. Teens will desperately root for the young couple's happy future, and the author is kind enough to provide hints that a happy ending just might come true. Reviewer: Stacey HaymanSchool Library Journal
Gr 8 Up—Mikey's life is a juggling act: Mum spends her days and nights with cheap sherry, seven-year-old sister Holly needs help getting to school each day, and Mikey is working at a menial job that offers the hope of a tantalizing career. He faces further complications when his 15-year-old sister, Karyn, completely withdraws, suffering the devastating aftermath of a rape by Tom Parker. Ellie Parker has always been a quiet little nerd until she witnesses her brother's brutal sexual assault of her classmate. The pressure from her family to protect Tom at all costs has forced her into the position of fabricating a statement to the police about what she knows. For both Mikey and Ellie, the balancing act of their personal lives becomes more precarious when they meet. They are drawn to each other but are torn between family solidarity, an inability to trust any member of the enemy's family, and the feelings of their hearts. Downham brilliantly captures the struggle of these two star-crossed lovers as they navigate the stormy waters of family loyalty, social workers and legal systems, job and school. With touching honesty, she brings her characters to life in this poignant story of love and choice. Mesmerizing.—Barbara M. Moon, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NYKirkus Reviews
A tender, complex character study from the author of Before I Die (2007).
Mikey is a boy from the housing projects, working as a dishwasher in a pub to try and keep his fatherless family together. Ellie is a daughter from a privileged family whose biggest worry is passing her final exams. When Mikey's sister Karyn claims she was raped by Ellie's brother Tom at a party, Mikey cruelly plans to use Ellie to get close to Tom in order to exact revenge. Instead, the impossible happens: Mikey and Ellie fall in love. Now each feels that to swear allegiance to the other will tear their families apart. And when Ellie decides to change her statement about what she witnessed that fateful night, each family must come to terms with the inevitable consequences. In Dowham's capable hands, what could be the sordid topic of a daytime talk show instead becomes a graceful catalyst that tempers and transforms Ellie and Mikey, who only want to do what's right but aren't sure how. The secondary characters are equally vivid, especially Mikey's overwhelmed alcoholic Mum and Ellie's tormenting and tormented brother Tom. Crisp, revealing dialogue, measured pacing and candid, unaffected prose round out this illuminating novel in which any reader can find someone to root for or relate to.
Unforgettable. (Fiction. 14 & up)