The Body of Christopher Creed
The Body of Christopher Creed is a young adult novel by Carol Plum-Ucci. It tells the story of a high school student whose life becomes unraveled when he tries to solve the mystery of a classmate's sudden disappearance. The novel won the Michael L. Printz Honor Book Award. Plot summary. Torey Adams, the narrator, moves to a new town and begins his senior year at Rothborne, a boarding school. As he starts thinking about how his year will be, he remembers the strange events of his junior year, mainly revolving around his former  classmate Christopher Creed; Christopher disappeared without a trace, leaving only an email sent to the principal, which rapidly spread throughout the school and the community. The prelude concludes with Torey sending out an email containing his retelling of the events. In the past, Torey and his friends read the email from Christopher. It hints at the possibility of Christopher either committing suicide or running away. The email references a number of people in town who Christopher admires as guys who have "everything", which includes Torey and one of his friends. This makes Torey more concerned about Creed's disappearance and  what has become of him. Torey talks about his concerns with his girlfriend Leandra, who brushes them off. At school, Torey begins to feel alienated from his friend Alex. Ali McDermott, a girl at school who suffers from negative rumors, talks to Torey about Creed and asks him to come over to her house that night, as she wants to show him something. At her house, Torey and Ali watch the Creed family's antics, seeing Mrs. Creed's controlling behavior and her relationship with Christopher's brothers. Torey meets Ali's boyfriend Bo, who is a "boon" (a local  slang term for the "really bad kids" who come from the boondocks) and is rumored to be a violent criminal, but who actually turns out to be a caring and protective soul, despite his tough guy demeanor. Torey comes up with a plan: he will go to a nearby payphone and call the Creeds, demanding that they meet him and bring money in exchange for information about Chris. Meanwhile, Bo will break in and take the diary. The plan backfires, and all three are brought to police headquarters. Bo confesses to the phone call despite his innocence. At the Adams ' home, Torey's mother tells Torey and Ali the story of Digger Haines and his father Bob; Digger ran away from home following personal tragedy, and Bob vanished after years of unpleasant rumors. Torey's mother hands Ali a notebook that Bo claimed was Ali's, but it turns out to actually be Chris's diary. The diary talks about Chris's relationship with a shy girl called Isabella, and states that one of them would die in the woods. At school the next day, Torey becomes further distanced from his friends when they question him about Bo Richardson. He  successfully avoids his friends but leaves feigning sick during the school day. Leandra calls Torey, and when Ali picks up the phone, she accuses him of sleeping with Ali. Torey and Ali go to meet Bo, who tells them the story of how he got the diary. Later, Torey finds Isabella in the telephone book, calls her, and leaves a message saying that he is looking for Chris and wants any information she has. During lunch the next day, the police and Mrs. Creed burst into the school cafeteria to take Bo for questioning. Ali and Torey protest; both confess  to the phone call. A few days later when Torey returns home from school he finds a message from Isabella on his answering machine telling him to "come over anytime" to talk about Chris. Ali and Torey then take a trip to Isabella's house and find out that she did not have a relationship with him, but did have sex with him. Ali and Torey discover that Chris imagined the whole relationship and wrote down the false information in his diary. Isabella also has Torey and Ali meet her psychic Aunt Vera, who proceeds to warn Torey that when  he is alone he "will find him. In the woods." Upon returning to the Adams' home, Ali and Torey decide to go to the woods to see if they can find Chris's body. When Torey turns to return home, he sees and follows what seems to be an Indian ghost. After meditating on events and coming to the belief that Chris would not have endured everything he had only to commit suicide, Torey falls into a subterranean Indian burial ground, breaking his leg when a boulder falls on it. When he gets closer, he finds a dead body that  he believes to belong to Chris, but is traumatized when the corpse undergoes rapid, visible decomposition due to its sudden exposure to fresh air. Torey is sent to a mental hospital to recover, but has lost all desire to associate with the people of Steepleton and their incessant gossip; he finishes his junior year of high school at home. The epilogue of the story returns to Rothborne, at the end of the school year. Torey finishes the school year reviewing his written epilogue to the events of Steepleton, and the responses he's received from people he's reached out  to as possible aliases of Christopher Creed. He remains convinced that Chris is alive, and that someday he will find him and tell the story of what happened. Major themes. The Body of Christopher Creed reveals the issues of the questionable nature of "reality" and the need to "be taken seriously". Characters undergo several situations in which what they say is set aside instead of being addressed. In the novel Torey says that every person in Steepleton has their own "version of reality" that "has nothing to do with what’s true" or what's not true. Following that his  mother screams at him to "remain calm" instead of addressing what point Torey arose. Similar situations occur throughout the novel where the children try to address a point and the adults push it aside to avoid the reality of their once "safe world" as Torey explains. Critics have also noted that The Body of Christopher Creed addresses the issue of the need to "blame others" when tragedy strikes. A Chris Creed Book review states that the novel has an "interesting perspective" about how "cruel" they can be to one another. When "tragedy strikes" the townspeople of Steepleton look to others  to blame instead of themselves. For instance, Mrs. Creed is quick to jump to a conclusion that Bo either "murdered" or is "holding" Chris after Bo is taken into custody. Although there was no hard evidence against Bo, she still jumps to the conclusion that he was the one responsible for her son. Evidence throughout the novel proves that the townspeople of Steepleton would rather cover up their problems by blaming others within their community.