When Duncan Meade arrives for his
senior year at the Irving School, an exclusive boarding school, he's
preoccupied with several things: the tragedy paper assigned by his
English teacher, where his room in the senior dorm will be, what
surprise was left by the senior who occupied his room last year, and
his interest in Daisy, another senior. His room assignment is his
first disappointment. He has the least desirable room on the floor,
and his surprise, a stack of CDs, isn't much better. Duncan starts to
listen to the CDs and is immediately caught up in Tim Macbeth's
story.
Time is an albino. He feels
uncomfortable around other people and spends much of his time alone.
However, on the way to Irving, he met Vanessa, also a senior at
Irving, and fell heavily for her.
She, of course, is involved with the
most popular boy at school. And so the story unfolds toward the
tragedy.
The book does such a good job of
portraying teenage angst that at times it's hard to read. The author
is able to show that these kids are really hurting whether the
circumstances justify it or not. The characters are believable, but
rather different from the typical boarding school students. I
particularly enjoyed meeting Tim, the albino.
The story hints at a mystery involving
Tim, Vanessa, and Patrick. Duncan also had a part in it as a junior.
It's one of the things making his senior year hard. I liked the way
the author dropped hints about the mystery, but the ending didn't
quite justify the buildup.
This is a good, but not great coming of
age story. I recommend it, if you enjoy boarding school stories with
unusual characters.
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