This novel tells the tale of a teenage girl jailed after dumping her baby in a trash can. Deep in denial, soccer star, Devon, can barely even admit that she was pregnant at all. She refers to the baby as IT (a tactic that grows a little old throughout the course of the novel) and wants to know when she can go home. Charged with attempted murder, Devon enters the juvenile court system while her attorney fights to keep her client from being prosecuted as an adult.
It's an extremely interesting topic, torn from the headlines. How does this kind of situation happen? The author spends a great deal of time establishing Devon's denial. Too much for my taste. I think the book could have benefitted from some serious editing in the first half. I grew very impatient with Devon who I couldn't help but think was awfully dumb for a smart girl. I knew she was in denial, but I wanted the pace to pick up a bit. Devon's slowness to answer even the most rudimentary question ("here" is the proper response during a roll call, for example)instead delving into flashback wore on me after awhile. 100 pages into the novel I almost gave up on Devon, not because she'd committed the crime but because it was taking so long to move forward in the story. Right about the point I reached maxmimum frustration, more interesting characters saved the day (the defense attorney for one; Karma, a fellow juvenile offender with an eye-rollingly bad name, for another) and suddenly Devon got it together (or more together than she'd had it) and the story grew more compelling by leaps and bounds. I was definitely hooked by the time the trial began and most readers will be too.
It's an extremely interesting topic, torn from the headlines. How does this kind of situation happen? The author spends a great deal of time establishing Devon's denial. Too much for my taste. I think the book could have benefitted from some serious editing in the first half. I grew very impatient with Devon who I couldn't help but think was awfully dumb for a smart girl. I knew she was in denial, but I wanted the pace to pick up a bit. Devon's slowness to answer even the most rudimentary question ("here" is the proper response during a roll call, for example)instead delving into flashback wore on me after awhile. 100 pages into the novel I almost gave up on Devon, not because she'd committed the crime but because it was taking so long to move forward in the story. Right about the point I reached maxmimum frustration, more interesting characters saved the day (the defense attorney for one; Karma, a fellow juvenile offender with an eye-rollingly bad name, for another) and suddenly Devon got it together (or more together than she'd had it) and the story grew more compelling by leaps and bounds. I was definitely hooked by the time the trial began and most readers will be too.
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