CHOKER

Über-victim Cara Lange feels invisible. At school, even her track teammates ignore her. At home, her affluent lawyer parents barely know their 16-year-old daughter’s alive. Her mother lavishes more attention on her cat than on Cara. But after Ethan Gray—the boy Cara harbors a crush on—rescues her from choking on a carrot, she becomes all too visible, labeled “choker” and relentlessly bullied by Ethan’s girlfriend and her posse. Enter Zoe, Cara’s best, and only, friend in elementary school, whom she hasn’t seen since fifth grade and who’s on the run from her abusive stepfather. Cara hides her in her room, easily concealing Zoe from her absentee parents. As Zoe settles in, her presence at first boosts Cara’s self confidence. However Zoe’s lawless attitude and mysterious disappearances increasingly alarm her friend, especially after one of the girls who bullied Cara drowns and another goes missing. This debut serves up genuinely page-turning suspense, but to buy the plot (and particularly the denouement), readers will have to overlook some glaring inconsistencies and improbabilities along with a faint but troubling homophobic subtext. (Suspense. 14 & up)