Three years ago Tom’s best friend Jonty was arrested for killing a woman: Alice’s mother. Jonty was a wild 18-year-old, and he doesn’t remember what happened. The police case fell apart, and Tom hasn’t seen Jonty or Alice since. Now, as they’re thrown together for the first time since the murder, everything is going to change again. Maureen McCarthy is a master at portraying young people in breakdown situations: times when something has thrown their lives into emotional upheaval, and love and violence are all tangled together. Somebody’s Crying shows this, with rich emotions and characters you care desperately about, as well as a strong, gritty voice. The ending doesn’t really resolve the devastating developments of the climax-I wanted to know that one of the characters in particular was okay-and it was that which prevented this from being a five-star review. McCarthy’s readership is primarily girls, and women who were teenagers when they first read her, but while Somebody’s Crying has a love story that will appeal to girls, the genuine and irreverent voices of the two boys and the depiction of their friendship mean that this could easily appeal to older teenage boys as well.

Jarrah Moore works for the Global Books in Print database at Thorpe-Bowker

Tags: maureen mccarthy