HOLDUP

Using a Lazy-Susan approach of rotating perspectives, Fields manages to paint a broad canvas of life as a contemporary high-school student. Predictable characters have predictable worries. Mid-story, all the characters converge as another high-school student holds up the fast-food restaurant in which they work or eat—all of their lives are changed forever. Sound familiar? While this work is a tour de force of ventriloquism—the author nails every cadence and every syllable of the character she’s speaking through—many of the characters are stereotypical and shallow. Sadly, other kinds of stereotype persists here e.g., the character named Manuel is the one who needs the job at the fast-food place most and needs encouragement from an elderly patron (a former teacher) to encourage him to go to college and show him the ins and outs of a financial-aid form. Recommended only to teenagers looking for an easy read, one that doesn’t promise much depth or heavy-duty soul-searching. (Fiction. 12-14)