ENTR@PMENT

Mozart in cyberspace. Spooner’s adaptation of Così fan tutte puts the action online and transposes the genders of the main characters. Bliss and Tamra have loving if not perfect boyfriends; their frenemy Annie contrives to prove to them that all boys are fickle. With the help of fellow misanthrope Johnson, she invents a manipulative plot in which the girls must pretend to be out of town while simultaneously posing as new exchange students online to lead the boys into temptation. The girls acquiesce to Annie’s puppet-master antics and are horrified to see how quickly their boyfriends’ fidelity erodes. The high drama of the opera translates well to YA fiction, even if the implausibility of the original plot is exaggerated by the modern setting. Sophisticated teens will not relate to the one-dimensional characters and their improbable friendship triads (the brain/Goth/cheerleader and the jock/nerd/dawg). But the format—like Lauren Myracle’s Internet Girls trilogy, the story is told entirely via instant messages, chat-room conversations and blog entries—might entice reluctant readers. (Fiction. 12 & up)