9 February 2010 ACCOMPLICE by Eireann Corrigan, Scholastic Press, August 2010, 296p, ISBN: 978-0-545-05236-8
"The lights turned on and the curtain fell down,
And when it was over it felt like a dream"
-- Neil Young
"Since Chloe left, most of my mornings had gone this way: I'd wake up, feeling a little strange and afraid, but at first I wouldn't remember why. And then all the jagged pieces would fit together -- where Chloe was; what we had done. I wondered what it would be like when that moment of not knowing didn't happen, when I woke already remembering how awful we were."
ACCOMPLICE is the best book on freaking out over the college admissions process that I have read since CATALYST. And this one is seriously freakier. Here's what leads to the plan:
"Everyone else sat there and assumed that College Guidance Lady wasn't talking about us, because we'd worked really hard and had planned to go to Amherst since the sixth grade. We'd been carrying Tupperwares of piss all around St. Barnabas Hospital for years, just to prove that someday we were going to make top-notch med students. We were the Class Council secretary, treasurer, archivist. We were envied in the tiny Colt River High School Orchestra for our ability to pluck pizzicato solos on the viola. We were special.
"Only not. What College Guidance Lady seemed to be saying was that we weren't as extraordinary as we all thought we were...
"'WHAT MAKES YOU SO SPECIAL?' College Guidance Lady boomed. 'Ladies and gentlemen, it's not enough anymore to be the captain of the cross-country team, the vice president of the debate club, or even the president of our local chapter of Future Farmers of America. Lots of young people have resumes peppered with fancy sounding titles. Lots of young people are on the honor roll. You need to think about what makes you stand out."
It begins as a joke between two girlfriends, Finn and Chloe, about a teenager in the national news named Margaret Cook, who had recently been released after a kidnapping and a lengthy captivity ordeal. While listening to College Guidance Lady talk about admissions committees wanting students with unique perspectives; individuals who have overcome adversity; the two girls quietly banter about the valuable edge in gaining college admissions that will be enjoyed by Margaret Cook.
"Margaret Cook is going Ivy" -- I remember whispering that to Chloe, just to see her squirm harder in her seat, just to get her laughing even harder.
"That's how the whole thing started. That's when it got on its way to becoming real."
And so after hatching an elaborate plan to which Finn is accomplice, Chloe goes missing. She holes up in the basement of Finn's grandmother's vacant house while Finn, who narrates the story, has to play the clueless, bereaved best friend. The plan is to get through eleven days of making the news and then somehow stage Chloe's triumphant resurrection from a harrowing ordeal.
ACCOMPLICE is the tense psychological tale of Finn's life through these eleven days and this supposedly victimless crime as it all spirals even further out of control. It illustrates how American adolescents might come to feel incredible pressure to gain admission to one of the designer-label institutions of higher learning that are annually inundated by a mind-boggling number of hopeful applicants.
ACCOMPLICE is also the coming of age story of Finn. While Chloe is big news, Finn is both a hostage to the situation that Chloe has masterminded and is, for once, out a tiny bit from under her best friend's shadow and occasionally seeing things a bit more clearly.
"What the hell did she know? Her honor roll student's hiding out in a basement, waiting for me to hit her over the head with a wooden plank. No wonder Chloe was so obsessed with getting into a good school. She'd grown up listening to her mom work her four years at Vassar into every possible conversation."
ACCOMPLICE is a powerful story of deception and its aftermath, a not-so-pretty tale of the underside of the American dream.
Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.com
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
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