Break the Surface (Watching Alice, Book 1) - Softcover

Grade 9 Up–"Real life" Manhattan teen Tom Sinclair wants readers' help to find his missing girlfriend, Alice, so he is publishing his diaries–and hers, too, in the case of the second volume–and posting a Web site, in the hopes that readers can make some sense of her disappearance. Mysterious, painful, unspoken pasts abound: Tom is haunted by a horrible incident involving a now-imprisoned psychotic friend in their former Vermont town, and Alice was trying to escape some deep-seated and dangerous guilt involving her past involvement with a high school clique that is apparently into some twisted, dangerous cult. The mood of the diaries is unrelentingly tense, with both characters continuously panicked throughout, and every moment of calm quickly unveiled as a false hope. At times this bogs down the mystery, making it hard to buy that whatever is going on could really be all that horrible–but with a little suspension of disbelief and patience, readers will find themselves caring about these intelligent, fairly realistic characters and eagerly anticipating the next installment. Be warned that impatient or reluctant readers may get tired after the second title; the third, fortunately, once again picks up the pace.–Rhona Campbell, Washington DC Public Library
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