CAROL PLUM-UCCI is the author of the acclaimed The Body of Christopher Creed, which was named a Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book and was nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Young Adult Mystery. She lives in southern New Jersey.
"Crackles with suspense."--Publishers Weekly
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Gr 9 Up-Claire McKenzie, 16, is a cheerleader, musician, and leukemia survivor. She's haunted by dreams, day and night, that her cancer is back. She secretly writes music with lyrics inspired by dark visions of girls who cut themselves with razors and watch themselves bleed. Her friend Macy is controlling, but she helps Claire feel "normal." Lani Garver enters the picture as a new student at their high school. With his porcelain skin, high cheekbones, longish bob, and seductive walk, it is hard to be sure if he's a guy or a girl. Claire's friends decide that he is gay. He is intelligent and worldly wise and is the one person to whom Claire can talk about her darkest dreams and fears. He seems incapable of not speaking the truth even when his life depends on it. Plum-Ucci also introduces magical elements into the story through Lani's philosophical reflections on Andovenes' Angels, and Claire's growing speculation that her new friend may indeed be a floating angel. She discovers who she is, in the face of unbelievably strong peer pressure, and the determination to decide what is real and what is not. Prejudice, homophobia, friendship, tolerance, individuality, and the possibility that something spiritually bigger than all of us rules this universe are wonderfully woven into this powerfully told story. Outstanding writing, strong characterization, and riveting plot development make this title rise above many recent coming-of-age stories.-Lynn Bryant, Great Bridge Middle School, Chesapeake, VA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
"Crackles with suspense."--Publishers Weekly
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