Hide With Me by Sorboni Banerjee - HIGH

Hide With Me by Sorboni Banerjee, 358 pages.  Razorbill (Penguin), 2018.  $18.  

Content: Language: R (70 swears; 6 “f”); Mature Content: PG-13; Violence: R.  

BUYING ADVISORY: HS – OPTIONAL  

AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH  

17yo Cade finds a girl bleeding in his family’s corn field.  As he tries to help her, she begs him not to take her to the hospital because she is hiding from someone.  Cade has his share of secrets with his abusive father, so he feels a need to protect this girl's secrets.  Cade hides the girl he calls Jane in an outbuilding on the farm.  As Cade and Jane start to develop a friendship, Cade realizes that Jane’s problems stem from the drug cartel that their town on the border has trouble with.  Cade and Jane try to help each other find a way for Jane to get away.  

I couldn’t put this book down.  It was super intense from page one.  I liked the characters and action-packed story line.  I do wish the ending was better explained, as the last chapter seems to be a stream of conscious that is supposed to imply what happens to the characters in the future.  The violence is mature as it describes multiple deaths that are doled out by the cartel and the actions of an abusive parent.  

Reviewer, C. Peterson.