Another book set in high school. Are we all obsessed, or is it just me?
I read about The Local News, by Miriam Gershow, in Marie Claire this month. Here's the short blurb:
You'd think a 15-year-old girl would be devastated if her older brother suddenly disappeared without a trace. Not Lydia Pasternak. She never really liked her bro, a dumb jock who picked on her and called her Titless Wonder. Lydia's almost glad he's gone, especially since his disappearance has made the nerdy brainiac newly popular. Beneath this darkly humorous tale of loss is a keen look at the painfully stratified world of high school, and a reminder that just because we're supposed to feel sad doesn't mean we always do.
Janet Maslin at The New York Times also reviewed The Local News. She wrote:
[T]his story is full of insightful, implicit hindsight as it illustrates how the trauma involving Danny will shape Lydia’s adulthood and forever stunt her ability to get along with others. Ms. Gershow captures the awkward, cringe-worthy friendship between Lydia and David, a good-hearted but charmless classmate who shares her interest in parsing African politics and is as old-shoe familiar to Lydia as he is nerdy. Lydia depends on him without exactly liking him. What she doesn’t realize is that she will never have such a fond, easy friendship again.
I saw some good posts about The Local News on Goodreads, but I am assuming it's not kosher to quote them here because it's a closed community (book bloggers – am I right?).
Has anyone out there read this yet? I'm definitely intrigued.