One Night That Changes Everything
Gr 9 Up–Eliza's parents are out of town for the weekend and the high school junior is looking forward to a Saturday night hanging out with her two best friends. Instead she discovers that her private notebook has been stolen; in it, she has written down all her fears since she was 12. Tyler, president of a secret society at school, is threatening to post it online, unless she does exactly as he says. He is exacting revenge for something she posted online about Cooper, a fellow society member and her ex-boyfriend. And what about Cooper? Whose side is he on? The evening turns out to be an all-night madcap adventure as the girls traipse all over the Boston area so that Eliza can kiss a hottie in a bar, pose in a bikini for an online posting, and more. In the end, she discovers that facing one's fears isn't so scary after all. This is a fun read in which parents are virtually nonexistent, high schoolers act a lot like college students, and readers waffle between rooting for the likable Eliza and thinking that she is so clueless that she half deserves what she gets. Like Reality Chick (2006) and Two-Way Street (2007, both S & S), Barnholdt has given readers another lighthearted window into contemporary teen life.Ragan O'Malley, Saint Ann's School, Brooklyn, NY© Copyright 2010.  Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc.  No redistribution permitted.