Grace Welles is a high school student at boarding school in Florida. But not one of those boarding schools filled with rich kids and super high achievers. Her boarding school takes those who can’t get into those elite schools, or whose parents can’t pay for them. But Gracie likes it there, for the most part. She keeps to herself through bad attitude and mild brattiness.
But then she falls in love. She just knows for sure that her science teacher is the one. And then she meets his fiancee. She is heartbroken and does not deal with it well. And then she sees Derek, one of the older students she doesn’t like much, and two of his friends picking on another student, she doesn’t really think it through before she grabs a couple of small rocks and loads her slingshot, aiming for his cheek. The first shot lands, and the boy they’d been ganging up on was able to get away.
He runs over to Grace, grabs her, and they run back into the school for safety. Except they run into a faculty member and end up in the principal’s office. He introduces himself as Wade, and they find out their punishment together—cleaning up the cafeteria after dinner every day for a week.
Despite Grace’s determination to keep to herself, she finds herself making friends. Offbeat senior Beth offers her advice on love. Wade turns out to be okay to hang out with. Her roommate Georgina is okay to talk to sometimes. And even Derek isn’t quite as bad as she first thought. Grace takes chances on these friendships. And she finds that she’s fallen in love. And that love changes everything for her.
As Gracie navigates the difficult emotions that come with love and sex, friendship and family, she loses the walls that had been keeping her from others—the self-absorption, the anger, the immaturity. She comes to understand that we’re all the same underneath it all—we’re just trying to do the best we can, making mistakes, taking chances where we can, and trying to heal from it all. And the more she understands, the better person, better friend, better partner she becomes.
Slingshot is a powerhouse of a novel about all the emotions and drama of high school and first loves. Debut author Mercedes Helnwein has written a book that takes readers back to being a teenager, for all its good points and bad.
I liked this book a lot, but it’s been a minute since I was a teenager. Even though the main character is only 15, there are some weighty issues in this book that might not be suitable for younger teens. Many of the characters are a little older than Grace, so their attitudes and ideas about love and sex are more mature. Slingshot is probably not for everyone, but for those who want to read about a strong high school girl, to better understand the social awkwardness that comes out of family dysfunction, or to remember the melodrama of first loves, this is a novel that sparkles with imagination and attitude.
Egalleys for Slingshot were provided by St. Martin’s Press (Wednesday Books) through NetGalley, with many thanks.
