THE FARTHER YOU RUN

Samantha, the surviving friend in perennially popular A Time for Dancing (1995) continues her life immediately following Julie’s death by leaving dancing completely alone. Julie’s death from cancer was told in the first novel in alternating chapters, a structure Hurwin retains, by having the voice of new friend Mona alternate with that of Sam’s. Slowly and painfully the path Sam must take to deal with her grief unfolds. Mona is a substitute for Julie, and her wry humor and unusual home life—her mother is bipolar with memorable manic episodes—provides needed balance. After the girls meet in a makeup English class, they decide to live together in an apartment in San Francisco rather than go to college. Immensely appealing and slightly unrealistic in the depiction of life on one’s own, this will be most satisfying to those who have read the first of the pair. The lack of passion for dancing is decidedly noticeable. Upscale Lurlene McDaniel fare. (Fiction. YA)