The Rivals

Gr 9 Up—At the elite Themis Academy, the dean of students so regularly turns a blind eye to misbehavior that students have been forced to create a vigilante justice system, the Mockingbirds, to investigate, try, and sentence their peers. Last year Alex Patrick was helped by this student court system as a victim of date-rape. She is now the leader of the inquisition in this stand-alone sequel to The Mockingbirds (Little, Brown, 2010). This year the problem involves a ring of students illegally using the ADHD prescription-medication Anderin to gain unfair advantage over their academic competitors. The plot twists and turns reveal one red herring after another. On the way, Alex comes to terms with her rape and moves forward both in coexisting with her attacker and establishing intimacy with her boyfriend. Overall, though, the characters are static and lack authentic voices: their revelations are preachy and didactic. Readers may never really identify with any of the characters, and the plot may be too complicated to hold their attention. Purchase only where the first book is popular.—Leah Krippner, Harlem High School, Machesney Park, IL