Dig Two Graves

Gr 9 Up–Neve Lanier has always been an outcast in school, but when her best friend, Yasmin, betrays her, she goes from outcast to public enemy number one, facing severe harassment from her classmates during the final months of her junior year. Neve, bisexual and closeted, doesn’t expect to be making new friends anytime soon, especially not at GLAM summer camp, but she’s surprised to enjoy the camp and the girls she befriends there, especially the alluring Diane. As the two grow closer, Neve shares her pain at Yasmin’s betrayal with Diane, who in return reveals that her stepbrother has been sexually assaulting her. On the last night of camp, the girls bond over the idea of killing each other’s tormentors, Neve assuming it’s a joke. But then Yasmin ends up dead, and Neve suddenly finds herself living out the plot to Strangers on a Train. This thriller quickly picks up the pace following Neve’s return from camp, giving the novel an exciting, edge-of-your-seat feel. Character development, however, suffers in exchange for plot. Neve begins the novel with bad taste in friends and a better-than-everyone attitude; she ends the novel basically the same, but with one decent friend.