Bleed by Laurie Faria Stolarz

From the Publisher

Over the course of a single summer day, ten teenagers in Salem, Massachusetts, will discover important truths about themselves and each other.

There is Nicole, whose decision to betray her best friend will shock everyone, most of all herself; Kelly, who meets the convicted felon she has been writing to for years; Maria, whose definition of a true friend is someone who will cut her. Then there is Sadie, a chubby eleven-year-old whose mother forces her to wear a "please don't feed me" sign stapled to her shirt; while Joy, a fifteen-year-old waitress hoping for true intimacy narrowly escapes a very dark fate. Derik discovers that his usual good looks and charm won't help him hold onto the girl he wants, while nineteen-year-old drifter, Mearl, is desperately looking for a place to call home. Sean is torn between his loyalty to his girlfriend and the possibility of finding something more with her friend, while Ginger's single-minded pursuit to bring down her nemesis only proves that they may be more alike than she thought.

Seamlessly woven together, this incredibly powerful and compelling collection of stories chronicles the very real trials of today's teen experience.

Children's Literature

One day. Ten teenagers. Ten lives that are linked by friendship, betrayal, and chance encounters. Kelly is Nicole's best friend, but that does not stop Nicole from betraying their friendship when Sean, Kelly's boyfriend, shows up in her back yard. Kelly is across the country in California where she will have lunch with Robby, the newly paroled murderer with whom she has corresponded for years. Maria has bribed Sadie with the offer of a trip to the ice cream parlor, but as much as Sadie craves the treat, she cannot do what Maria wants. And then there is Joy Ryder (named after her father's motorcycle) who has a rubber dick and is not afraid to use it to pay back Danny Winslow who has made her life a living hell. At times funny and touching, but more often sad, these stories provide a glimpse into the lives of today's teens. Sex, obscenities, self mutilation, and that rubber dick (seemingly Joy's favorite toy since she was little) makes this a book for mature teens.

VOYA

The title reflects both metaphoric and actual spilling of the life force in every encounter comprising this novel. Stolarz, author of Blue Is for Nightmares (Llewellyn, 2003/VOYA April 2004), offers ten young narrators who describe the drama of daily life across eleven hours of a summer day. Ranging in age from eleven to just over twenty-one and connected to each other through friendship, passion, loneliness, lust, accident, and birth, the narrators' stories and viewpoints stand well clarified and unique, with the building tensions among them creating a unifying force. Kelly's best friend, Nicole, loses her virginity to Sean, Kelly's boyfriend, while Kelly, three thousand miles from their Massachusetts home, is finally meeting Robby, a young man with whom she has been infatuated throughout his prison term. Maria, friend to both Kelly and Nicole, gets Sadie to add to the bleeding scratches Maria is collecting compulsively on her arm-but then Sadie has to go home to face the bloodless abuse her mother metes out in the name of parental concern. When Kelly deserts Robby at the diner where they meet, he winds up with the waitress, Joy, and does not murder her despite their revisiting the scene of the crime that sent him to prison. Plot and character are equally important here, and the author is clever enough to keep the story arcs braided rather than tangled. Although none of the characters is wholly likeable, their motives and emotions are credible and each has at least one sympathetic facet.

School Library Journal

Gr 10 Up-Stolarz has written a funny, yet poignant book of interconnecting short stories in which the lives of 10 teenagers are seamlessly woven together. The stories take place over the course of one day, and as the characters' lives cross paths, it becomes evident that any decisions made can and will influence the others-sometimes unintentionally. The collection runs the gamut of teen problems: Nicole sleeps with her best friend's boyfriend; Mearl longs for family roots; Joy, a waitress, is taunted by school bullies and wants to retaliate; Sadie is overweight and her sister is jealous of the popular Kelly. Derik thinks that he can have any girl he wants, and Sean, Kelly's boyfriend, just wants to do the right thing. The author demonstrates the ability to identify with today's teen experience, and she portrays the accompanying behavior and language realistically. While perhaps not a first purchase, the book does have broad young adult appeal.-Sharon Morrison, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Durant, OK Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Overlapping short stories about a group of related young people all take place one Saturday in August. It's a good gimmick, but the precisely written narratives, which are mostly about loneliness, betrayal and heartbreak, are anything but gimmicky. What they are is sad, sad, sad, and since most of the kids that populate Stolarz's desolate teenage landscape live in dysfunctional families and are odious themselves, readers have almost no one to care about. For example, Nicole has sex with her best friend's boyfriend, while the so-called best friend is off meeting her romantic pen pal, a man who's just been released from prison for murdering his girlfriend. Meanwhile, another friend, the emotionally and physically scarred Maria, touches herself in front of her mother's boyfriend for pocket money, while poor overweight Sadie's diet-obsessed mother pins a sign to her shirt that says, "Please Do Not Feed Sadie." Although this collection ends on a note of hope, it is almost unbearably bleak. (Short stories. YA)

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