Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 02/01/2009 *Starred Review* Leticia, a gossipy high-school student, knows that “Girl fights are ugly. Girl fights are personal.” She says this after overhearing that Dominique, the tough-as-nails basketball player, is planning to beat up pink-clad fashion-plate Trina at 2:45. The infraction was minor—the oblivious Trina cut off Dominique in the hallway—but for Dominique it was the last of a series of insults, the worst of which was being benched by Coach for failing to improve her grades. Bouncing between the three first-person accounts within the span of a single school day, Williams-Garcia makes the drama feel not only immediate but suffocatingly tense, as each tick of the clock speeds the three girls toward collision. Dominique’s anger and frustration is tangible; Leticia’s hemming over whether or not to get involved feels frighteningly authentic; and only Trina’s relentless snobbery seems a bit simplified. Most impressive is how the use of voice allows readers to fully experience the complicated politics of high school; you can sense the thousand mini-dramas percolating within each crowded classroom. Along the way, the characters’ disregard of such high-school stalwarts as A Separate Peace and Of Mice and Men subtly prepares the reader for the messy and gut-wrenching conclusion. - Copyright 2009 Booklist.

Bulletin for the Center... - 02/01/2009 In a typically chaotic morning at an urban high school, just before classes officially start, three girls cross paths. Gossip-loving Leticia has lied her way out of early morning remedial math and tough girl Dominique has been attempting to browbeat a teacher into raising her grade so that she can regain her rightful spot on the basketball team when bubbly Trina, excited to get her art for the school mural up, cuts between Dominique and her two friends. An already seething Dominique takes this as intolerable disrespect, and she announces to her girls that she’s taking Trina down that afternoon; Leticia, overhearing her, spends the day wondering if there’s something she should do to stop the attack on Trina. Williams-Garcia deftly creates portraits of each of the girls as the narration moves from one to another, with the triangulation of view resulting in some fascinatingly complex characterization: Trina, for instance, is sunny and self-absorbed, convinced of the world’s love and admiration for her, while others see her as vain and dangerously clueless (“When you’re the outsider,” Leticia thinks, “you should know your situation”). The prose is taut and leanly descriptive, and suspense mounts effectively as the day progresses and Trina’s unsuspected fate approaches. Ultimately, this is a physics question in human form: will something-her own concern or her friend’s telephonic entreaties-move Leticia sufficiently to stop Dominique’s motion, or will something divert her path from interference? The grimness of the answer may surprise YAs more accustomed to stories that end with tragedy averted, but it’s got a realism that they’ll find bracing, and there will certainly be much here to elicit discussion. DS - Copyright 2009 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

School Library Journal - 03/01/2009 Gr 8–10— All Leticia wants to do is to mind her own business. She's too busy stewing about being assigned to early-morning math tutoring to worry about anyone else's problems. Sure, she's intrigued when she overhears bad-girl basketball player Dominique threaten to beat up bubbly, self-obsessed Trina for bumping her in the hallway—who wouldn't be excited to get the inside scoop on juicy gossip like a girl-on-girl fight after school? But she doesn't feel the need to get involved, even after she realizes that Trina didn't hear Dominique's threats and thus has no idea that she's going to get jumped. Will she follow best friend Bea's advice and warn Trina of the danger she faces, before a potential tragedy can unfold? In alternating chapters narrated by Leticia, Trina, and Dominique, Williams-Garcia has given her characters strong, individual voices that ring true to teenage speech, and she lets them make their choices without judgment or moralizing. Even the hostile, defensive Dominique is drawn in an evenhanded way that leaves this thought-provoking tale without a clear-cut villain. Teens will relate to Leticia's dilemma even as they may criticize her motives, and the ethical decision she faces will get readers thinking about the larger issues surrounding community, personal responsibility, and the concept of "snitching."—Meredith Robbins, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis High School, New York City - Copyright 2009 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

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