Freefall
Grade 9 Up—Devastated since his father's suicide, milquetoast Luke Prescott lets Briar Academy's golden boy, Hayden Applegate, dictate their friendship. Luke echoes Hayden's superior attitude and enables his poor treatment of others. When Russell, a transfer student, starts chipping away at Hayden's power base, Luke watches the rivalry grow more intense. Then drug-addled Hayden crashes a car into a tree, injuring one of their fencing teammates and freeing a spot on the team for Russell. Hayden volunteers to lead Russell's initiation to the team—a cliff dive into a small lake—and Luke reluctantly accompanies them on the ill-fated outing. Anhalt's accurate diction and sense of pace propel readers through Luke's indecision and numbness, which become tiresome. Interpersonal relationships are well realized, however, especially Luke's sputtering romance and friendship with Rachel. Though the adults in the narrative are mere tokens of responsibility, their weaknesses don't impact the overall plot. Teens will appreciate the action and the drama, without being overwhelmed by trendy names and labels as in other books set in boarding schools. Luke's witness-stand epiphany is heavy-handed, but Anhalt, a college sophomore, shows great promise in this debut novel.—Chris Shoemaker, New York Public LibraryCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.