Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols
Paperback: 245 pages
Publisher: MTV; Original edition (March 17, 2009)
BOOK DESCRIPTION: HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO?
All Meg has ever wanted is to get away. Away from high school. Away from her backwater town. Away from her parents who seem determined to keep her imprisoned in their dead-end lives. But one crazy evening involving a dare and forbidden railroad tracks, she goes way too far...and almost doesn't make it back.
John made a choice to stay. To enforce the rules. To serve and protect. He has nothing but contempt for what he sees as childish rebellion, and he wants to teach Meg a lesson she won't soon forget. But Meg pushes him to the limit by questioning everything he learned at the police academy. And when he pushes back, demanding to know why she won't be tied down, they will drive each other to the edge -- and over....
MY REVIEW: What struck me first about Going Too Far was its cover: a poignant image of part of a guy's face next to a smiling girl. Sweet enough and it's obvious they care for each other. I wondered why so I began to read... And read... And I couldn't stop. I didn't want to. Echols paints such a vivid portrait of a small time life, I was taken there to the opening scene at the railroad tracks (as a teen the tracks were also my favorite place to hang) which figures so prominently throughout the story. Meg, the main character, can't wait to graduate and leave the dumpy town she grew up in. Part rebel, part lost soul, she gets into trouble that night partying down by the tracks. Taken in by a rigid do-it-by-the-book cop, Meg can't help but wonder why this young cop would waste his life away in the same town she despises.
The cop, John After (interesting name), has ties to that bridge, which Meg will learn about later. As punishment, Meg and her two friends (the fourth kid, also her boyfriend of sorts, has a lawyer for a dad so he gets off) are made to travel alongside EMTs, firemen and a cop. Unlucky Meg gets the same cop who arrested her. That week turns out to be five nights neither of them will ever forget. We learn along this poignant tale that Meg has her own story to tell, one full of heartbreak and sadness. She and John discover they share some things in common--loss, determination of spirit, hardheadedness, and the ability to love.
Going Too Far will draw you in and never release you. Echols' prose, her characters and their stories, will simply resonate and hum inside you for a long time. This is a story which weaves itself into your psyche and is unforgettable. I loved it and will read it again. It's a keeper and sits proudly on my bookcase.
RATING: ++++1/2
BOOK SOURCE: Purchased.
Comments
Post a Comment