Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Temptation-Travis Thrasher

Temptation


Travis Thrasher

David C. Cook, Apr 1 2012, $9.99

ISBN: 9781434764171



Living with his divorced mostly drunk mom in Solitary, North Carolina sixteen year old Chris Buckley attends summer school with six other students at Harrington High in Solitary. He misses his life in Chicago suburb Libertyville where his dad resides. However part of that is his idyllic teen lifestyle ended in Solitary with Chris confused about recent events like the death and resurrection of Reverend Jeremiah Marsh, the disappearance of Iris Crag’s inn, cousin Jared and the road it was on and Jocelyn Evans.



In Mr. Taggert’s class, he makes friend with some of the guys and senior Lily. Attracted to the vivacious beautiful senior, he follows her down a path away from his inquiry into the darkness of Solitary as he has teenage interests far from the unknown responsibilities of what is expected of him dealing with the shadows. Instead he accepts a cell phone from his enemy Reverend Marsh and flees from his grave existence into the Temptation of fun with lovely Lily and new friends like Roger.



The third Solitary young adult tale is an intriguing thriller as Temptation for a normal teen life supersedes the quest to learn the haunting secrets of the small North Carolina town. Ironically, the atmosphere for the most part is lighter than its predecessors (see Gravestone and Solitary), but that is an illusion as the veneer of light is like an iceberg as the hero and readers see only the ten percent above water surface. Though it behooves the audience to read the pervious entries to contrast what is happening to the hero, Travis Thrasher shows his talent as he makes a strong yet entertaining case that Temptation can make evil look benign.



Harriet Klausner



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