Crusader - Hardcover

Bloor, Edward

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0152019448 ISBN 13: 9780152019440

Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers, 1999

Synopsis

Roberta Ritter has been waiting for a knight in shining armor for most of her humdrum life. She’s a doormat, a nobody whose mother died a few years back, a smart girl who wastes her afternoons working in a failing arcade in a failing shopping mall. And then a Crusader arrives. . . .
Only this Crusader is a virtual reality war game, one that does a booming business at the arcade, despite--or perhaps because of--the controversy over its racism and violence.
Roberta’s boring life explodes. Onetime friends become bitter enemies, strangers reveal themselves as allies, and Roberta discovers the truth about her mother’s death. In uncovering what’s real and not just virtually real, Roberta learns to stand up for herself--and, maybe, to become her own crusader.

About this title

Review:

A steamy, swampy Florida setting and the threat of a repressed memory are two of the elements in Edward Bloor's first young adult novel, Tangerine, that made it an instant suburban gothic classic. His follow-up, Crusader, delves even deeper into the dark side of suburbia, exposing racism, virtual violence, and even murder behind the sunny facade of a Florida strip mall.

Fifteen-year-old Roberta works hard every afternoon and weekend in the family business, a virtual reality arcade in the West End Mall. She keeps her mind off the fact that the arcade is slowly going under and that her father ignores her existence, but she cannot ignore the fact of her mother's brutal murder seven years ago. Roberta's quest to find her mother's killer weaves together several skillfully constructed subplots, including a shady political scheme to ruin the mall, real and imagined hate crimes against an Arab store owner, and how the Crusader itself, a virtual reality game, serves as the catalyst that ignites and unites these seemingly unrelated factors in Roberta's life. Bloor's brooding, densely plotted page turner is an incredibly original novel that will engage teens on several levels. Though it is almost 400 pages long, the nonstop action and many startling revelations will keep teens transfixed until the very last sentence. (Ages 12 and older) --Jennifer Hubert

Book Description:

Hardcover edition 1999
978-0-15-201944-0
0-15-201944-8
Scholastic paperback 2001
978-0-439-22160-3 pb
0-439-22160-9 pb

About this edition

• Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0152019448
• ISBN 13: 9780152019440
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400