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Another book that isn't nearly as good as the hook. Teenage girl receives note that threatens to expose -- or, worse, to physically make her pay for -- the very serious crime she and three of her friends committed the previous summer. The crime is horrible enough, but the kids' coping strategies are so superficial and routine that one finds oneself almost agreeing with their tormentor -- that these spoiled brats could benefit from a hard dose of reality: they are all more interested in their love lives than what they did that terrible night. If this doesn't quite happen, it is only because the characters aren't compelling enough to provoke much of an emotional reaction either way. With less action than you might expect and a whole lot more lax dialogue than you could ever want. A quick read, though. Revised and reissued in 2010 in order (a) to update the technology and (b) to squelch any sense of history a young reader might have possibly been exposed to. Made into a film in 1997 starring Jennifer Love Hewitt and Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Another book that isn't nearly as good as the hook. Teenage girl receives note that threatens to expose -- or, worse, to physically make her pay for -- the very serious crime she and three of her friends committed the previous summer. The crime is horrible enough, but the kids' coping strategies are so superficial and routine that one finds oneself almost agreeing with their tormentor -- that these spoiled brats could benefit from a hard dose of reality: they are all more interested in their love lives than what they did that terrible night. If this doesn't quite happen, it is only because the characters aren't compelling enough to provoke much of an emotional reaction either way. With less action than you might expect and a whole lot more lax dialogue than you could ever want. A quick read, though. Revised and reissued in 2010 in order (a) to update the technology and (b) to squelch any sense of history a young reader might have possibly been exposed to. Made into a film in 1997 starring Jennifer Love Hewitt and Sarah Michelle Gellar.
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