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Searching... Avon-Washington Township Public Library | Teen Fiction Book Hardback | 120791001930805 | T STR | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
I'll begin with Lucy. She is definitely first on the list. You can't believe how it feels to be in the cafeteria and turn around and there she is staring at me like I'm some disgusting bug or vermin. Does she really think I WANT to be this way? I hate you, Lucy. I really hate you. You are my #1 pick. I wish you were dead. The day after anonymous blogger Str-S-d wishes the popular girl would die, Lucy vanishes. The students of Soundview High are scared and worried. Especially frightened and wracked with guilt is Madison Archer, Lucy's friend and the last person to see her the night she disappeared. As days pass with no sign of the missing girl, even the attention of Tyler, an attractive new student, is not enough to distract Madison from her growing sense of foreboding. When two more popular students disappear after their names are mentioned on Str-S-d's blog, the residents of Soundview panic. Meanwhile, Madison receives anonymous notes warning that she could be next. Desperate to solve the mystery before anyone else disappears, Madison turns to Tyler, but can she trust him when it becomes clear that he knows more than he's sharing? The clock is ticking. Madison must uncover the truth behind the mysterious disappearances . . . before her name appears in Str-S-d's blog. In the spirit of stories like I Know What You Did Last Summer, Todd Strasser updates the teen thriller for the techno age with Wish You Were Dead.
Reviews (3)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 8-11-Madison Archer and the students of Soundview High are beginning to be afraid. She and Tyler dropped Lucy off at her front door and now she's missing. An anonymous blogger had written that Lucy and other students who think that they are better than everyone else should be punished-and now no one knows what happened to Lucy. Soon Lucy's boyfriend also goes missing, and then another student. Madison is thrown into the middle with anonymous emails hinting that that she could be next. Who can she trust? Emily Bauer narrates Todd Strasser's thriller (EgmontUSA, 2010) that blends in social-networking strategies with the perfect amount of teen anguish. The voices of the teenagers are spot-on, but the blogger's email voice and the kidnapper's taunts aren't as distinctive and strong as the text implies. The sense of madness and the build-up of fear are lacking. The adult voices are just mediocre, and it is sometimes difficult to distinguish who is speaking. However, the story setting, the rich kids, the missing students, the blogger, and the gripping mystery will captivate listeners.-Anita Lawson, Otsego High School, MI (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Carefully plotted, this suspenseful novel blends the traditional with new tech details to successful end. Popular but kind Madison is the protagonist of what can be described as an almost archetypal teen thriller about a high-school clique being stalked (and, one by one, abducted) by an unknown villain. Interspersed throughout Madison's first-person narrative are blog postings by a bullied student at their school; each time she posts about a slight by one of her peers, that person mysteriously goes missing. Also peppered throughout are deliciously evil monologues from the perspective of the kidnapper that are both titillating and chilling. In keeping with the tradition of horror thrillers, readers will shake their heads at the implausibility of some of the characters' actions (for example, what mother would leave her daughter to go to an all-day meeting just after not one but three of her closest friends have been abducted?). However, realism is not the point here, and an impressive number of red herrings will keep readers guessing right up to the satisfying conclusion. (Thriller. 13 up) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
What's happening to the most popular students at the high school in nice, safe, well-to-do Soundview? First Lucy disappears; then her boyfriend, Adam, vanishes. Could our heroine, Madison, be next? After all, she has a cyberstalker and she was the last person to see both Lucy and Adam before they went missing. But wait! Who's the mysterious blogger Str-S-d? Hasn't he or she (curse the anonymity of cyberspace) expressed undying hatred for both Lucy and Adam? And what's the story with that new kid, Tyler? Yes, Madison thinks he is darkly handsome, but he does wear that black trench coat and sit by himself at lunch. Hmmm . . . The prolific and ever-popular Strasser has written a reader-friendly suspense novel that includes all the traditional tropes (a seemingly omniscient/omnipotent villain, a clutch of red herrings, etc.) while adding a few technological twists to appeal to connected contemporary teens. Well paced and plotted, this book makes for diverting but soon forgettable reading.--Cart, Michael Copyright 2009 Booklist