The Unfortunates by Kim Liggett

Yes, another Kim Liggett book.

In fact, THIS IS HER BEST BOOK YET!!!!!!!!!!!

I was RIVETED to this.  Could not put it down.  I was almost late to pick my son up from camp because I had to finish it!

Grant is the son of a wealthy senator.  One night in early winter of his senior year, he leaves a party tipsy and upset.  He causes a car crash, resulting in the deaths of all the people in the car he hits.  Because of his father's connections, he gets off with few months of a suspended license and mandatory drug testing.  If he completes his final test and attends one last court date, the record gets wiped.  Off to George Washington University he'll go, a free man with a clean record.

But Grant can't handle the guilt.  Knowing he got off with "affluenza", he's decided to kill himself in retribution.  The weekend before his last court date, he heads to a hiking spot, one his father and other male relatives have hiked during their senior years as a "rite of passage", intending to cut the rope and fall to his death.  Fall he does, but it's due to a cave in. 

Grant finds himself trapped below with four other teens from a local public school.

Grants learns a lot about himself in meeting these kids, all from a world he doesn't know.  They are what his friends and family would call charity cases, but he comes to see them as the people they are.  All with hopes and dreams.

Unfortunately, something else is might be in the caves with the group.

That's where I am going to stop, because I don't want to spoil anything. 

This book does not have the same level of weird that her previous books have.  In fact, the "horror" level is pared way down.  This is a book about coming to grips with reality, making choices, facing the music, and ultimately, proving one's humanity. 

I'll be donating this once we return to school!

Oh, and P.S. I just read Liggett has a new book coming out.  Tagline: The Handmaid's Tale meets The Lord of Flies.

Follow me on Twitter @RamblingsLMS

Tweet what you're reading #whhssummerread

All opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W.