BIBLIOGRAPHY & REVIEWS

Publishers Weekly Starred Review

Surpassing Lemieux's first novel, The T.V. Guidance Counselor, in its power and sensitivity, this new drama focuses on relationships among a trio of teenagers-Boog, an accomplished guitarist; Carey, a talented but disturbed girl struggling with her father's alcoholism; and self-assured, charismatic Theo. Boog and Theo have been best friends since childhood, even before they discovered blues music and formed a band of their own. Their strong bond begins to unravel when, during their senior year at Yardley High, Carey Harrigan enters the scene, dressed like a "walking tag sale," and sweeps Theo off his feet. Theo's attempts to help Carey put together the pieces of her shattered self-image lead to a series of ugly confrontations and a chilling climax readers will not soon forget. This absorbing exploration of adolescent hopes, dreams and vulnerability contains undertones as resonant and melancholy as a blues melody. Ages 11-up.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. 

Kirkus Reviews

An absorbing novel about friendship, love, competing loyalties, and loss. From the opening line, Boog's first-person narrative sweeps readers into his story; an undercurrent of foreboding makes it almost impossible to put it down until the last page is turned. Boog and Theo are best friends and members of a high school blues band. But their relationship changes when Theo falls in love with Carey Harrigan, a strange new girl at school. Carey is a writer; she is sensitive, intelligent, and somehow vulnerable, too. Boog likes her, but can't quite figure her out, and he resents the hold she has on Theo. As she first proved in The T.V. Guidance Counselor (1993), LeMieux is a very good writer. Her multifaceted characters major and minor contradict themselves, get confused, and say things they don't really mean, just like real people. They care for each other, and readers care for them, and about what happens to them. LeMieux demonstrates a belief in the basic goodness of human nature; her arguments are persuasive, and the book is first rate. (Fiction. 12+)

July 1, 1995

The Horn Book Magazine

"The relationship between Boog and Theo-best friends since childhood and co-founders of a blues band-undergoes changes during their senior year of high school when Theo falls in love. Boog tells the story of these changes in a quiet and moving novel. Theo is a charismatic teenager, successful with music, school, and friendships, so it is a surprise to Boog when Theo falls in love with the enigmatic, withdrawn Carey. As the year progresses she becomes increasingly important to Theo, and he consistently chooses her over Boog and the band. The year ends in tragedy when Theo is accidentally killed as he crosses a highway. Boog is now forced to forgive Theo for cherishing Carey at the expense of other parts of his life and to forgive Carey for being the agent of change. Boog tells the story in the sometimes casual, sometimes intense, voice of a teenager. He and Theo are sympathetic, richly drawn characters with human complexities and frailties. LeMieux treats her theme with care in an emotional but never maudlin story of tragedy and growth." M.V. Knoth

(November/December 1995.)

Kirkus Reviews

After a thwarted suicide attempt, 16-year-old Michael Madden lands in a mental hospital, where he rehashes the events that led to his desperate act. Juxtaposed with passages chronicling therapy sessions and hospital routines are lengthy flashbacks relating the bitter divorce of Michael's previously unemployed mother and his marine photographer father, and Michael's growing preoccupation with cameras and photography. LeMieux also describes his relationships with girlfriend Melissa; photography teacher Mr. Dorio; fellow employees at a grocery store; and a bizarre, perhaps autistic woman whom Michael captures on film. Some readers may be particularly attuned to LeMieux's understanding of the void created by a father's absence, while others will relate to Michael's frustration at being misunderstood and his attempt to distance himself by becoming absorbed in his art. Evincing deep feeling for adolescent anguish, this first novel admirably explores a young man's injured soul. (Ages 12-up. July 12, 1993.)

Kirkus Reviews

Finally, some 11-year-olds you'd really want to hang with. Mary Ellen Bobowick and her best friend, Justine Kelly, are smart and sophisticated preteens. Eating Chinese food one night—with chopsticks, of course—Mary Ellen gets a fortune cookie that warns of bad luck to come. The youngster, who wants to be a biologist like her mother, has a scientific mind and scoffs at the dire prediction. But when a stream of misfortune comes her way, she begins to wonder if the cookie hadn't had a point. First she breaks the mirror in Dr. Bobowick's great-grandmother's antique silver mirror-and-brush set. Then she discovers that Justine is moving to France for a year, fights with Justine, drops a jar of Career Day fruit flies in her classroom, and gets sprayed by a skunk! And that's only part of it. But eventually things look up for Mary Ellen—in the form of her handsome classmate Ben, as she confides in best pen pal, Justine—and she discovers that all the bad luck was simple, scientific cause-and-effect, nothing more. Classic characters for Generation Y from LeMieux.

(November 1994 Fiction. 8+)