Random by Tom Leveen - OPTIONAL

Leveen, Tom Random, 217 pgs. Simon Pulse, 2014. Language – R (134 swears, 20 “f”), Sexual Content – PG-13; Violence – PG-13; 

Everyone, including her own brother, hates Tori because they believe she killed a boy. The night before her trial, Tori gets a call from a random number, at first she thinks it’s another hate-call. But it’s worse. The stranger on the phone is going to kill himself unless Tori convinces him that he has a reason to live. 

The premise of Random blew me away. I’ve never read anything like it and I love it. My eyes could not soak in the words fast enough, my fingers almost tore pages as they anxiously tried to appease my need to know what was said next. With a message about the harmfulness bullying (cyber and otherwise) that needs to be understood, I want to tell everyone to read this book. However, I will not give an “advisable” rating to literature that swears so much. If it hadn’t sworn as frequently as Leveen wrote, I would have been happy to shout praises about Random from the rooftops. 

HS – OPTIONAL. Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen