Publisher Comments:

The story of four young friends in New Orleans whose lives are pulled in drastically different directions when they enter high school. Meredith, Brandon, Stephen, and Greg, once inseparable, are torn apart by envy, secret passion, and rage. Soon two violent deaths disrupt the core of what they once shared. Five years later the friends are reunited, and, when one of the deaths is discovered to be a murder, secrets unravel and the casual cruelties of high school develop into acts of violence that threaten an entire city.

Review:

"Less Than Zero meets Donna Tartt spiced with Stephen King."

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 New York Magazine

"Unexpected twists and a cleverly planned mystery....Rice takes more risks than an older writer might. Images linger long after the book is over." 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 Washington Post Book World

"A shocking, sexy tale. An intricate novel about four childhood pals whose friendships deteriorate into a nightmare of violence and chaos."

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 Glamour

"It's scarily sincere and ultimately preposterous."

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 Jennifer Reese, The New York Times Book Review

"Although the gothic gloom is a little heavy for the high-school scenes, the torments Stephen is forced to endure at the hands of his former friends are painfully realistic. That the author's parents are both writers (father Stan is a poet) will generate interest in this novel, but its originality and merits stand on their own."

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 Booklist

"There's a lot to admire in Rice's first effort. He's learned...a storyteller's sense of timing. And he capably brings a gay teen's inner turmoil to life."

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 Seattle Weekly

"A chillingly perverse tale....Rice can be given credit for his energy, brashness, and ability to capture the real misery of the teenage years."

USA Today

"Rich and loving depiction of an exotic and intoxicating city....The characters are compelling...vivid and intense."

The Boston Herald

"An intriguing, complex story, a hard-nosed, lyrical, teenage take on Peyton Place."

Publishers Weekly

Amazon.com

Take the sensuous, fecund New Orleans setting, add a generous helping of tangled Southern family history, and season liberally with a sensitive teenage boy rejected by his friends and frightened of his own homoerotic impulses and you wouldn't be surprised to discover that the novel containing all of the above was written by someone named Rice. But a few paragraphs into the first page, it's clear that Anne Rice's son's first novel isn't about vampires or witches and does not otherwise read like one of her exceedingly popular books. The only family resemblance is in the setting, the sexual orientation of the lovingly described male characters, and the scent of overripe magnolias.

There's murder, suicide, and madness at the heart of this rather clumsy coming-of-age story, which focuses on the youthful friendship of Stephen Conlin, Meredith Ducote, Greg Darby, and Brandon Charbonnet. This friendship is destroyed by a sexual incident that takes place just before the foursome enters Cannon, an exclusive prep school. There, Stephen is ostracized by his former friends, now the most popular kids on campus, who'd just as soon forget their own complicity in the event. Envy, passion, and rage drive the narrative, but the emotions are as juvenile as the characters, and the long passages depicting the rituals and cruelties of high school, from pep rallies to football games, slow down the pace without really illuminating character or motivation. The novel reads like a roman à clef. Rice might have been wiser to tell someone else's story rather than his own.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　-- Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly

Chronicling the lives of four tormented youths, 21-year-old author Rice's earnestly overwritten debut novel flails wildly and suffers from an identity crisis as awkward and vivid as that of his soul-seared characters. Yet the book offers an intriguing, complex story, a hard-nosed, lyrical, teenage take on Peyton Place set in contemporary New Orleans. The tangle of a plot grows weedlike when former childhood friends enter high school and find their loyalties have dramatically shifted. Popular, budding bulimic Meredith Ducote is a closet alcoholic whose diaries brim with morose aphorisms on her wretched life; Greg Darby and Brandon Charbonnet are boisterously homophobic high school jocks; and Stephen Conlin, whose father committed suicide, is the sensitive homosexual boy who quickly becomes the victim of cruelty and derision from the school's popular crowd, led by Greg and Brandon. But the two bullies are covering up a painful childhood secret in their persecution of Stephen, a secret Meredith knows. Before the novel reveals this secret during the overwrought climax set during a devastating hurricane, one character dies, another has an emotional breakdown, a parent is institutionalized, a gay bar is bombed by a militant hate group, a concealed paternity is discovered and several families are broken up. Rice is sensitive to the emotional undercurrents that compel teenagers to both mask and wallow in their intense feeling, but the atmosphere of juvenile angst that pervades the novel is as gluey and suffocating as a hot summer on the bayou. 20-city author tour. (Aug.) doubt is why the name "Rice" dominates the book's jacket.

Book Dimension

Height (mm) 203 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Width (mm) 134