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Gr 9-Up Sixteen-year-old Jocelyn alternates her narrative between the present of 1975, in which she grapples with an ambivalent boyfriend and the frightening disappearance of another boy whom she's known from early childhood, and the past of that childhood. Gabe, the boy who is missing, is shown to be, through Jocelyn's memories as well as his more recent actions, both strong willed and secretive. Jocelyn is clearly more stable than either Gabe or her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Benny. What she lacks, according...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

Jacobson re-creates the summer of 1975 in small-town New Hampshire, where love, sex, religion, and family shape a charged and confusing environment in which to come of age. Jocelyn's boyfriend, Benny, is pulling away from her, and her lifelong friend and neighbor, Gabe, suddenly goes missing. Jacobson deftly builds suspense as the town searches for the popular, All-Star athlete, while flashbacks piece together Joss's lonely childhood: Gabe's bursts of cruelty towa...Log In or Sign Up to Read More