cover image Free Fall

Free Fall

Elizabeth Barrett. HarperCollins Publishers, $15 (249pp) ISBN 978-0-06-024465-1

Debut novelist Barrett breathes fresh life into the YA ``sitprob'' with this sparkling first-person story of a rebellious 17-year-old who spends a summer with her prim and proper grandmother. Ginnie is sure that the real reason she's being packed off to Pittsburgh is not so her parents can ``get back in touch with each other,'' as her mother says, but to keep her from her motorcycle-riding boyfriend, Denny. Determined to act as ``bad'' as possible, Ginnie smokes and falls in with some girls who are shoplifting at the corner drugstore; reluctantly, she also hangs out with Kris, the ``nice boy'' across the street. But acting tough loses its luster when, in reaction to the news that her parents are separating, she accepts a ride with some hoods and nearly gets raped. There is much lyricism and wit in Barrett's punchy prose, and she shines at describing Ginnie's delight and terror in discovering (and reining in) her sexual feelings as she and Kris fumble into love. Her heroine's transformation from isolated, self-centered child into integrated, empathic young woman makes for an absorbing read. Ages 12-up. (Oct.)