Scribbler of Dreams by Mary E. Pearson

Title: Scribbler of Dreams
Author: Mary E. Pearson
Year of Publication: 2001
Genre: Young Adult
Pages: 223

First Line: "'I hate the Crutchfields!'"

Summary: Seventeen-year-old Kaitlin Malone was born to hate the Crutchfields.  The hatred her family has harbored for generations is the one thing Kaitlin knows she can count on.  But with her life turned upside down as she starts her senior year among strangers at a public high school, Kaitlin discovers that even her family's hateful legacy can't steady her -- and that hatred and love are sometimes separated by nothing more than a heartbeat.  It's young Bram Crutchfield, a gentle and compassionate artist, who wins Kaitlin's heart.  And when she tells one lie and then another to conceal her identity to protect their love, Kaitlin is uickly caught up in a web of deceit that threatens to destroy everything she knows and values.

Source: Back of book.

Review:  In a more-or-less Romeo and Juliet story, Pearson uses rich language that seems out of place for her setting and characters.  Aside from somewhat self-indulgent language, Pearson includes characters for the sake of the plot and, while this may be something to commend, it is done in such a way that makes the purpose of each character clear and limits each secondary character from having their own personalities, such as Becky and Abby.  A very abrupt ending and a complicated history of the conflict would have been better written in a longer piece.  Despite the loquacious style, the book moved quickly with mildly surprising events here and there among the more predictable sections.  Maybe worth a read if you don't mind abrupt endings -- the rest can be overlooked for a summer fling read.

Worst part: Ending was too abrupt

Best part:  Allison Crutchfield

Grade: D+

Other Books by This Author: The Second Life of Locke Jenkins, The Fox Inheritance, The Adoration of Jenna Fox, The Miles Between, A Room on Lorelei Street, David v. God

Author's Website: Mary E. Pearson


Currently Reading: The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson