- The Boy Who Cried Wolf
After her mother's marriage to the wealthy Robert, Katie does her best to blend in at her posh new high school in the Los Angeles suburbs, pretending that nothing is wrong while nightmares of a grasping Monster continue to disrupt her sleep. When she gets the lead role in the school play and attracts the attentions of fellow cast member David, Katie can almost believe that her life is finally "Normal and Connected." However, as things begin heating up with David romantically, Katie starts piecing together the memories that haunt her dreams, realizing not only that she was sexually abused as a child, but that the abuser was her father, who died of cancer several years before. Katie's gradual recognition of her father's violation moves through predictable, therapeutically standard steps—at first shocked by the truth, Katie attempts to make excuses for her father before finally acknowledging, with the help of her stepfather, Robert, that his crime had no justification and embracing her own blamelessness. Her account is candidly rendered, though, and the alternating tenderness and impatience of Katie's boyfriend, David, in the face of her trauma is unaffected and honest. Despite the problem-novel clichés, readers may be absorbed by this emotional narrative of recovery.