Circle Nine by Anne Heltzel - OPTIONAL

Heltzel, Anne  Circle Nine, 260 pages.  Candlewick Press, 2011. $16.99 Language R (5 “F”, 5 other); mature content PG-13; Violence PG-13.  Abby wakes up in a burning field and can’t remember who she is, but Sam is there to help her and he whisks her off to a little house in the woods.  Abby decides to see this wood house as their castle, even though occasionally she can see that she is imagining her world, that in reality the house and Sam aren’t as beautiful and shiny as she pretends.  Slowly, Abby’s world is shattered as Sam turns out to be a drug addict and she remembers the reason she woke up in a burning field.  Abby eventually breaks away from Sam, but the book ends without any hope or direction for Abby.  I thought the book was hard to put down and kept you wondering what was going to happen, but once I found out that Abby wasn’t innocent, I had a hard time with her character.  She also didn’t ever get help which left me unsatisfied with the ending.  HS-OPTIONAL.  Reviewer, C. Peterson.