Danger Game - Hardcover

Lawson, Julie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316517283 ISBN 13: 9780316517287

Publisher: Little Brown & Co, 1996

Synopsis

Determined to hide the truth about her sexual abuse from her cousins, with whom she is spending the summer, Chelsea consoles herself by burning things whenever she feels threatened and finds an ultimate challenge when she plays a fear-confronting game.

About this title

From School Library Journal

Grade 8 Up-This novel's southwest British Columbia location and summer vacation setting lend themselves well to a teenage adventure. It takes a long time, however, for the adventure to get underway. The beautiful protagonist, 16-year-old Chelsea, is guarding a deep secret. She is torn between her divorced parents, and she has a deep dislike for her mother's fiance, Simon. She demonstrates that she is unhappy by setting small fires. The troubled teen is shipped off to live with her father, until he is seriously injured in an accident. Then she is sent to live with her aunt and uncle at their summer cabin on Vancouver Island. When she gets together with her cousins and their friend Diggon, the four young people play a daring game to test their mettle. Under Chelsea's influence, the game becomes especially dangerous. Eventually, she realizes that she must face the truth and help herself. Readers will not be surprised to learn that Simon has been sexually abusing her for years. The incredible plot twists and the leaps between diverse locations are the weakest elements of The Danger Game. The characters, however, are interesting, and the setting is unique enough to keep YAs reading. The plot seems to lurch from incident to incident, eventually coming together as a fishnet, rather than as a seamless cloth.?Lucinda Lockwood, Thomas Haney Secondary School, Maple Ridge, BC
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Tragedy narrowly misses three troubled teenagers as they help one another in a melodramatic tale from the author of Dragon's Pearl (1993). The three meet at a vacation spot on Vancouver Island's southern coast: Beth, feeling betrayed because Diggon, longtime friend and her first boyfriend, has not kept in touch; Diggon, terrorized and full of self-loathing after watching schoolmates beat a passerby, possibly to death; and Chelsea, Beth's cousin, a pyromaniac who has been driven by sexual abuse to fold herself up inside like the origami cranes she creates. The three begin to share their secrets on an outing to a remote cove; caught by changing weather, they barely make it back to Beth's house alive, where Chelsea learns that her abuser and her mother are now married. Only Beth's intervention prevents her fiery suicide. Lawson switches between points of view, so that readers always know more than the characters; it effectively builds tension, although it also gives the story a crowded feel--as if the teenagers must somehow compete for the role of protagonist. The adult cast is a realistic mixture of helpers and villains and the plot's resolution is conventional (Diggon goes home to face the music; Chelsea's would-be stepfather faces trial) but not contrived. Expertly told. (Fiction. 11-15) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Little Brown & Co
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0316517283
• ISBN 13: 9780316517287
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 213