Danny's Mom: A Novel
Bullying permeates both the student body and faculty of Meadow Brook High School in Wolf’s unsettling novel. Wolf, the award-winning author of the young adult novel Camp (2012), writes primarily for adult readers as she follows a grieving mother and guidance counselor who channels her devastation over the sudden loss of her son into fierce advocacy for vulnerable teens. Wolf’s subject matter is valuable and convincing, including gay bashing, vicious gym-class harassment, and cliques among the faculty and administration that threaten to spill over into the classroom. The novel’s villains, however, tend to announce their malicious intentions too overtly at times. The best passages occur in more subtle moments, such as when the narrator realizes that adults often live in fear of teenagers, rather than the other way around. Adult readers may recognize their past selves in the fragile students hanging around outside the high school’s guidance office during passing period, hoping for a last-minute appointment or at least a nod from a reassuring face. --Carolyn Alessio