Rock, Peter Klickitat,
229 pages. Amulet Books, 2016. $17.95.
Mature Content: PG-13;
Language: G; Violence: G.
Audra and Vivian are sisters living with their parents in
the suburbs of Portland, OR. Audra is a
senior in high school, two years older than Vivian, and has become disenchanted
with urban ways of living and modern conveniences. Wanting to get back to a more primeval
existence, and partially to impress her new boyfriend, Audra studies wilderness
survival techniques, disappearing almost every night, until she runs away for
good. Audra has promised to always take
care of Vivian, who has an anxiety disorder, so Audra coaxes Vivian away from
home with the promise that shortly they can go off and live in the wilderness
of Alaska, as humans were meant to, away from workaday life.
This story is told from Vivian’s perspective, which gives a
lot of space for the reader to fill in the details of what is happening, and
whether things are real or imagined. The
powerful influence of disestablishment ideals on teens, the desire to escape
one’s parents, and Vivian’s desperation to hold on to Audra are essentially
their motivation for running away, and their experiences while on the run do
not paint a rosy picture. The spare text leaves much room for the reader to
draw one’s own conclusions about the roles of the characters and the meaning of
some mysterious messages that speak, somehow, to Vivian.
HS – ADVISABLE.
Reviewer: JA, High School
Librarian
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