Items related to The Fling
Synopsis
Felicia is baffled when the story she is writing begins to speak about events before they happen, especially when she writes of a mansion for teenagers who do not want to live at home and the mysterious "gardener" who changes their lives
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From School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up-Felicia Gordon is working on a novella for her high school English class. In it, a girl named Annabel D. Day seeks sanctuary in an old house owned by a woman who believes that teens sometimes need a place to escape to. Annabel, in turn, invites a girlfriend and a male classmate to join her. The threesome pass the days investigating the mansion and the strange groans they hear at night and attempt to unravel the mystery that shrouds the relationship between their hostess and a young man hidden in another wing. This evolving novella alternates with Felicia's narration of her own life, which mysteriously mirrors the events she is writing about. Her confused and blurred world is well portrayed, and giving a teenager the ability to write her own future is an interesting premise. Readers may very well go for the romantic entanglements depicted, complete with explicit sexual encounters. But this book has a major weakness. With two parallel plots unfolding simultaneously, involving similar people in each, it is difficult to keep either in focus. The characters, as a result, fail to come to life. In an important scene, one of the couples is lost in a maze. While adolescent relationships might very well be characterized by a maze, a novel should not read like one. Consistent with the flings that occur throughout the story, this book is shallow and ephemeral.
Tim Rausch, Crescent View Middle School, Sandy, UT
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Publishers Weekly
Fans of Thompson's accomplished and idealistic novels ( The Grounding of Group 6 ; A Band of Angels ) may well be disappointed by the paper-thin characters and convoluted melodramas in this latest effort. High school student Felicia Gordon begins writing a story in which the main character (based on her real-life best friend, the wealthy Allison) goes to live for a few weeks in an old mansion owned by a mysterious, sophisticated woman. Next thing Felicia knows, Allison takes up residence in the mansion recently acquired by glamorous stranger Kate Mycroft. Felicia quickly realizes that her writing may have some sort of influence on events in the real world. However promising, this plot device never becomes more than a gimmick, and Felicia's first-person account (along with her literary ventures) is glib and irritating: "Annabel D. Day, like many very pretty girls, was not disposed to speculate too much." Soon Felicia moves into Kate's house, too, joining Allison and suave, BMW-driving Malcolm, and the mysteries multiply when their hostess introduces obnoxious David, her teenage brother. Thompson leaves puzzles unsolved, concluding his muddled narrative not long after David's grisly and predictable demise. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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