A Million Times Goodnight

Gr 8 Up—Seventeen-year-old Hadley steals her boyfriend Ben's car and leaves a party to take a ride with her two best friends. In retaliation, Ben posts a naked photo of Hadley to Facebook. Hadley and her friends run into Josh, her old flame who has become a social pariah since he killed a girl with his car last year. Together, the four teens have to decide whether to drive back to the party and confront Ben, or hit the road and get as far from home as possible. The narrative splits at this point, with alternating chapters telling a similar story: in one, Hadley and Josh go on a road trip, and in the other, all four teens head back to the party. By making this choice, the author gets a chance to pack double the action into a single book. This is a wild ride, featuring stolen cars, drugs, and guns. It also deals with rape, pornography rings, and underage drinking. Yet all these heavy topics are treated as inconveniences, things for the characters to worry about briefly before making revenge plans. The police are called at the very last minute, after characters, plot, and scheme complicate things. The tone is sassy and not remotely believable. There are expository monologues that sometimes stop the pacing in its tracks.