Playing in Traffic by Gail Giles

This story is about Matt, one of those good kids who blends into the background of his school, and Skye, a troubled “Goth-girl” who pursues Matt. It isn’t so much a love story as a train wreck, but it isn’t hugely depressing. In part, the reason it isn’t a downer is because of the speed of events. This fast-read book has short chapters which whisk by as the almost inevitable impending doom approaches. There is a lot of “normal” here, and some insightful moments. I understood Matt’s observation that his family lived together, but separate, and I laughed out loud when he noted that if it “wasn’t on the computer then the research was not worth doing”. Matt is fairly grounded for a 17 year-old, a sense, perhaps, of the author’s voice coming through. It is that grounded nature, however, that makes the tale somewhat unbelievable. He spirals from decent guy to party animal so fast that it is hard to see where his reasonableness loses out to self-destructed behavior. The reason given is the pull of a girl coming on to him, but I still feel it is a tad far-fetched. A subtle morality book, there are many kids as troubled as Skye out there. The best advice, sadly ignored, is when Matt’s younger sister tells him that he needs to be talking to an adult. If teens reading this book could pick up on that simple idea, a number of their struggles could be better resolved. But that wouldn’t make for good YA fiction, would it? And so we have a short little book with a mature content and a troubling, sudden end. Read it, and share your views.