Kevin Brooks
The Chicken House
Release date: July 1, 2008
List price: $17.99 (496p)
ISBN: 978-0545057523
|
 |
Review - "Black Rabbit Summer"
Reviewer: Cori Vella
Rating:
Teenagers have friends. Teenagers do things sometimes that are stupid. Teenagers sometimes are dragged along by said friends to do those stupid things. Coming-of-age, proving of oneself, peer pressure, rebellion — they're all reasons to do stupid things. But the group of teens in Kevin Brooks' Black Rabbit Summer do something that qualifies as a bit more than stupid — they do something downright murderous.
Black Rabbit Summer takes place in England during a summer in which Pete Bolan, the narrator, must say goodbye to his childhood friends Nicole and Eric Leigh as they prepare to move to France. Nicole calls up Pete and asks him to meet her, Eric, and Pauley (another of their childhood friends) at their hideout for one last get-together. Pete brings with him his best friend Raymond, even though Raymond is a bit weird and not very well accepted by the other kids.
"Raymond is a bit weird" is a teeny understatement. Raymond comes from a dysfunctional family, where his only solace is his pet rabbit. Raymond claims his black rabbit talks to him. Yeah. Weird.
They meet at the hideout, get drunk, smoke a joint, then skip off to the carnival. While there, they run into Stella Ross, who is a bit of a local celebrity. Stella toys with Raymond, and Pete comes to his rescue. Whilst still incredibly drunk, the boys stop off in a fortune teller's tent. The fortune teller has a particular interest in Raymond, and after some ominous cards are drawn, she warns Pete to keep a close watch after him.
Both drunk and needing to blow chunks in the Port-a-Loos, Pete and Raymond separate momentarily to take care of their business. But Raymond is never seen again.
Pete looks all over for Raymond, but only finds Pauley, Eric, and local thug Wes Campbell, who claim they haven't seen Raymond anywhere. The news explodes the next day with the story of local celebrity Stella Ross missing from the carnival. Search teams are assembled. Throughout all this, Pete becomes incredibly frustrated that the police are not looking for Raymond, who is also missing. In fact, Raymond is their primary suspect in Stella's disappearance.
Pete tries to assemble the pieces of Raymond's disappearance, Eric's strange behavior, and the strange evidence that is unearthed by the police. Hoping to clear Raymond's name, he gathers up his courage and confronts Pauley, a hellish experience that reveals the awful truth. To say more would give it away, and such is the suspense that the reader needs to figure it out for themselves.
Black Rabbit Summer is a well-written young adult novel with likeable characters, a realistic style, believable suspense, and, my personal favorite, that page-turner quality. I could not put it down once I opened it. Definitely one of the better of the young adult books to come out this year. Brooks is a gifted writer, and I hope he continues to produce.
The only thing preventing Black Rabbit Summer from being a "Love It!" is the ending. Not everything is resolved — I wonder if Brooks intends to write a sequel, or if he was purposely being ambiguous? Regardless, with such a high-tension plot, a resolution would have been preferable to the I-don't-know-what-happened-next type ending that Black Rabbit Summer settles for.
|
Advertising 
