Going Underground (review)

Del Hartwick is trudging through his final months of high school with little hope for the future. The affection of his pet African parrot, his job as a gravedigger, and the loyalty of his friend Marvin keep him focused on his single attainable goal of getting his juvenile criminal records sealed when he reaches his majority. When a beautiful teenage girl begins to visit a particular grave in the cemetery, Del is struck with the first desire he's allowed himself in years—a desire for a romantic relationship with Livia. This would, however, mean admitting to her the past crime that will, regardless of his good behavior, shut down any chance he might have for a normal career. Although Vaught makes some nominal effort to cast Del's story as an unfolding mystery, cover blurb and ham-fisted clues soon tip readers off that he was caught sexting with his girlfriend in eighth grade, and due to their relative ages (her thirteen to his fourteen) and an aggressive campaign by the prosecuting attorney, Del is now a felon who must, for the rest of his days, register as a sex offender wherever he goes. Appropriate punishment for this new, technologically enabled crime is a complex issue, to be sure, but Vaught's multiple approaches to the problem muddy the waters more than they clarify. Del's juvenile action could be considered a cautionary tale, but his reluctant participation in a crusade to have state law changed in a way that retroactively negates his status as a rapist is really just a polemic for liberalizing the law—until one considers that Del still has a pornography conviction intact, which leaves him in legal limbo. Teens who gravitate to hot-button issues are welcome to respond to Del's situation with sympathetic outrage, I-told-you-so contempt, or simple schadenfreude, but few will be able to look their cellphone in the screen without a shudder and a "What if . . . ?"