Boys, Girls and Other Hazardous Materials
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Looking for a new beginning after a terrible mean girl past, Charlie Healey realizes there's no escaping high school drama. Charlie Healey thinks Harmony Falls is the beginning of a whole new life. Middle school was brutal. But high school is Charlie's big chance to start over and stay out of drama, except that on her first day she runs into Will, her ex—best friend, who had moved away. Now a varsity athlete and hotter than Charlie remembered, Will hangs with the crowd running the school. But Charlie doesn't understand their power until an innocent delivery guy falls victim to a near-deadly hazing prank. Torn between doing what's right and her secret feelings for Will, Charlie must decide whether to turn in her very best friend or live with the guilt of knowing what he did. Rosalind Wiseman's first novel for young adults is a fresh, funny, and juicy read about friendship, betrayal, and how far some will go to be accepted.Publishers WeeklyWiseman's (Queen Bees & Wannabees) by-the-numbers YA debut introduces Charlie Healey, a spirited ninth grader who enters prestigious Harmony Falls High School, ready to leave behind the traumas and “frenemies” of middle school. But when a childhood friend, Will, as well as a girl she had a hand in humiliating, transfer to her school, the drama she was trying to escape comes flooding back into her life. Between her feisty and boy-crazy friend Sydney (“she was my friend and unconditional friendship included throwing yourself into potentially mind-blowingly stupid situations”), her crush on Will, and the lacrosse team's increasingly violent hazing traditions, Charlie has to restructure her priorities, analyze her values, and take a stand. Charlie possesses all the uncertainty and self-doubt of a typical high-school freshman, although some of the plot particulars and her first-person narrative, which is spliced with occasional IM conversations and newspaper articles, are sometimes more reminiscent of high school sitcoms than real life. Nonetheless Wiseman has created an honest story of the convoluted workings of teenage friendships and relationships. Ages 12–up. (Jan.)
