Freefall

Anhalt, Ariela. Freefall. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2010.

What does a follower do once the leader has been removed? Luke has spent his entire high school career following his friend Hayden. He is friends with Hayden's friends, he takes the same classes as Hayden takes, and he agrees with Hayden's opinions. But when a tragic accident lands Hayden in jail, Luke is the only eyewitness, and he has to decide what he is going to say. Did Hayden's actions cause another student's death? Or was this tragic accident truly an accident?

I appreciated hearing this story from Luke's point of view; people from both sides of the story approached him, questioned him, attempted to influence him. Luke sunk into depression as he attempted to reconcile what he thought he knew with what was true and what was right. In the end, I was proud of Luke's decision.

Although this book presents some interesting ideas and would be great for a classroom discussion, I do not recommend it for classroom use due to the profusion of profanity from the teenage characters. For those of you who have read A Separate Peace, though, this is an interestingly similar story.