Pushing the Limits

Gr 8 Up–High school seniors Echo and Noah have regular therapy sessions with the school’s clinical social worker. Both struggle to understand past traumatic experiences that have left them scarred, and both need help to move forward. As part of the therapy, Echo is enlisted as Noah’s tutor. Their initial resistance to this arrangement eventually blossoms into a romantic relationship, defying the school’s social stratifications. Echo is grappling with numerous tragedies, including the death of her brother, her mother’s bipolar disorder, the remarriage of her father to her childhood nanny, and an accident that has disfigured her body and left her unable to remember the traumatic event. Noah feels responsible for the house fire that killed both of his parents and forced him and his younger brothers into foster care. His deteriorating academic performance, habitual marijuana use, and reputation for sleeping around have cemented his reputation as the school’s bad boy. Plot pacing keeps the story moving along to a satisfying, if predictable, conclusion. Some readers may be concerned about Noah making statements that imply that he owns Echo, such as when he declares that he “claimed” her and “I did just mark my territory.” Filled with amorous descriptive passages such as “I gazed into her beautiful green eyes and her fear melted” and “enjoying the teasing taste of her tongue,” this poignant narrative, which is told in the two protagonists’ alternating voices, will find a following among those who enjoy contemporary teen romances.-Babara M. Moon, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, NY