A Multi-Styled Novel That Works!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                      Let me first explain what I mean by "multi-styled."  Gimmicks.  I do not care for graphic novels, or narratives written as Twitter entries, Facebook texts, or even blog posts.  Leave that writing there.  And, yes, dears, I know I am a blogger, but if I were to switch to a book--novel or otherwise--it would be vastly different from what is on here.  I grew up reading clear, straightforward prose, and that is what I like.  Which is why reading the new Harper Lee is such a treat!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                     Long before the Internet, Stephen King pioneered gimmick writing in his first novel, "Carrie" which was written as a series of journal and book entries.  That, and the adolescent penchant for cruelty, made the book work, and is why it continues to hold up.  And while there is adolescent cruelty in Kimberly McCreight's excellent novel, absolutely nothing can top the opening shower scene in "Carrie."  Come on, girls; even if you have not read it, you all know it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                     Kids today have it worse than in my day.  We could go home, or to the library, and withdraw.  But with all the gadgetry out there, and used, there is no escape for the persecuted child, which is one of the points that McCreight's use of the medium brings home.

                                     The plot is simple.  Amelia's mother receives word from her daughter's private school that Amelia--an Honors student--has been expelled for cheating.  When she get there, she finds Amelia dead, having jumped off the roof, an apparent suicide.

                                       Or was it?  Because, several weeks later, when the dust is beginning to settle, Kate, Amelia's mother, receives a text that  says, "Amelia didn't jump."

                                         The rest of the novel involves Kate's working out of this situation.  This where betrayal and cruelty among the students gets exposed, as well as the administrative hypocrisy that allows it.  And Kate makes some unpleasant discoveries, along the way, about decisions she had made, in the past.

                                         The denouement I found anti-climactic.  But I felt sorry for Kate, and Amelia's friend, Sylvia, both of whom have heavy things to live with for the rest of their lives.

                                           But the gimmickry here works, as it draws the reader into the students' World Wide Web of cruelty and deceit.  As a thriller, and an anti-bullying treatise, "Reconstructing Amelia" scores on both counts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!