There are few times in life more difficult than high school. To some, it can be The Most Dangerous Place on Earth, hence this new book from debut novelist Lindsey Lee Johnson.
The story of a group of kids in a wealthy suburb of San Francisco, this story looks at the individuals behind the stereotypes. What makes the pretty girl who seems stuck-up so quiet and isolated? Why does the wild alpha male student become a drug dealer? Why does a student become romantically involved with a teacher? Why does a smart kid cheat in order to get into a better college than he could get in on his own? Why does a girl drop out of her college track and take up drugs and a new set of friends? These students are more than a label, more than a prototype of The Smart Kid or The Slutty Girl or the Rowdy Boy. They are three-dimensional characters with real motivations, goals, and wounds.
Running simultaneously through this story is that of the new, still inexperienced, optimistic, young teacher. Miss Nicoll is hired in the middle of the semester to replace a teacher who has left. She loves literature and wants to share her love of words with her students. She feels like she has so much to offer then, despite being only a few years older. But she faces not only her students' apathy toward her class but also helicopter parents, experienced teachers who dislike her ways, and school administrators. As she gets closer to her students, and trades cell phone numbers for homework questions or accepts friend requests on Facebook, how far is too far for that relationship to go? As the boundaries slowly get erased between teacher and student, how does that affect the education? How much of high school is about the information we learn, and how much is about the relationships?
Revisiting high school through the eyes of these characters makes you see these years in a completely different way. You see the layers of meaning and subtext, the subtle causes and effects of the choices made during these years, the friendships and the romances, the successes and the failures, the tests and the parties. Everyone has stories about high school, and everyone can relate to at least one of these characters.
I am not a big fan of high school novels, but this one is interesting and intriguing in a way that makes you think. It's not just about the drama. It's about what's under the drama, and about where the drama leads. Revisit your teenage years--read this book.
Galleys for The Most Dangerous Place on Earth provided by the publisher through NetGalley.com.