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COLD SPRINGS
by Rick Riordan
Bantam, April 2003
352 pages
$23.95
ISBN: 0553802364


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Roger Chadwick, a teacher at a small private school in California, lost his daughter Katherine to a drug overdose, very possibly an intentional one. Now ten years later Chadwick has become an escort, one who picks up teenagers who are addicted or otherwise troubled and, with at least one parentıs permission, takes them to a ³boot camp² sort of school where they are broken and then rebuilt in the mode society wants.

He finds himself picking up Mallory Zedman, the daughter of his oldest friend and his lover, who was present when Katherine overdosed. She is now addicted to drugs and in what society considers an inappropriate relationship with a black teenager. The situation gets even more complicated when we learn that Malloryıs father, John, has been blackmailed by someone and feels threatened by the brother of the black teen.

Someone is after John, someone may be after Chadwick, perhaps someone may even be after Mallory. This is a story of suspense but of mystery as well. We are frightened for the principals but we have no idea who is threatening them. A shadowy figure, whom we meet, but can never identify, seems to have vowed revenge. And we do not know, until the very end, what the reason might be.

I thought the characters were quite well developed. I could empathize with every one of them, even the shadowy menace. All were flawed. All had been wounded at some point by life. All had made some bad choices. But all of them were trying to do the right things and make up for some of the bad choices they had made. Chadwick blamed himself for his daughterıs death and was determined to save other teenagers from the same fate. Mallory was badly hurt by Katherineıs death and has become the rebellious teenager, doing everything her mother, who is principal of the private school, dislikes. But she is a true friend to Race and a strong girl inside. The other characters are somewhat less well delineated, but all become real to us.

The setting of the school is particularly well done. . . an area in Texas hill country where we can vicariously participate in the forced marches, the survival training, the treks through the forrest. The writing starts out a little forced, it seemed to me, but gets much stronger as we got into the story. The plot was intriguing and, as I said, mystifying with several twists and turns that fascinated me.

I am left with a moral question, which I think is what Riordan intended. I spent my life teaching teenagers and I know how angry they can get, how quickly they can ruin their lives, how unmanageable they can be. A program like the one featured in this book could easily save many of them. But at what kind of cost? Do we really want teenagers to conform to societyıs mold? How does change come about unless there is anger against the status quo? Where does creativity come from except in fighting to become an individual? Is it really worth it to ³cure² these adolescents? Itıs not a question I can answer for anyone but myself, but Riordanıs book certainly poses the question.

Reviewed by Sally A. Fellows, June 2003

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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