ONE NIGHT

A confused novel-in-verse explores the personalities of four archetypical high-school students and the consequences of one-night flings. Gabe is the gorgeous member of a trio of friends who throw parties. His job is to invite as many pretty girls as he can attract. Bram is the calculating mastermind and Al supplies the booze. Helen is the independent loner who gets pregnant one night. Free-verse poems describe these and other characters, sometimes in first-person and sometimes in third. Divided into three unequal sections, the story lacks structure, as side characters butt in at awkward moments, and as a lack of depth and context to the story make each character’s neatly tied-up ending seem far too purposeful. Though the verse allows Wild to vividly capture the emotions of these teens, the story she’s trying to tell requires a novel’s structure and complexity, never realized here. Poetry sequence or novel—it fails either way. (Fiction. YA)