STOLEN CAR

In this hard story set in a hardscrabble world, 15-year-old Danielle is struggling to change her life. Her anti–role model is her mother, a waitress who lives with Danielle, and a drunken boyfriend who hits her. It’s no wonder that Danielle prefers to spend her time at her best friend Ashley’s house, a household that contains two working parents and is “clean, sober, and shout-free.” Then Danielle falls for Reid, a charismatic older boy who makes her feel beautiful while manipulating her shamelessly. Despite warnings from practically everyone who knows them, it takes Danielle forever to see this for herself, a narrative flaw that causes the reader to grow far more impatient then either Ashley or Danielle’s constantly punning wannabe-boyfriend Evan. It’s hard to tell why Danielle inspires such devotion; although her situation is sympathetic she’s not a particularly winning creation. The ending, a long, morally treacherous set-piece during which the reader finally learns Ashley’s heavily foreshadowed secret, is hard to buy. (Fiction. 14 & up)