cover image SWOLLEN

SWOLLEN

Melissa Lion, . . Random/Lamb, $15.95 (183pp) ISBN 978-0-385-74642-7

Readers will sense something swelling and bubbling just beneath the surface of this psychologically complex first novel. California teen Samantha Pallas stands on shaky ground, surrounded by unstable characters. Her divorced parents are emotionally distant ("My mother had easily given me up to my father.... My father easily gave me up each time he asked me to lie for him," Samantha thinks) and her best friend, Chloe, expresses her pain by cutting herself. Then there's Owen, the star of Samantha's cross-country team, whose sudden death sparks rumors of suicide. After a summer of one-night flings, Samantha falls hard and fast for a new Iranian student named Farouk. They share several intimate chats and Samantha feels sure that Farouk loves her too. But after their relationship turns physical, she learns that he is as untrustworthy as her two-timing father. Readers will anticipate an explosion when Samantha realizes she's been used by Farouk. Instead, the end of the romance creates yet another quiet ripple of uncertainty and unhappiness for Samantha, confirming her notion that all men are liars. Besides conveying a negative image of men, the book's conclusion is frustratingly ambiguous. The mystery of Owen's death goes unsolved; Chloe never comes to terms with her self-mutilation; and Samantha's parents stay remote, unwilling to offer her support. It remains unclear whether Samantha has, in the end, lost faith in the opposite sex or whether she will find the courage to seek a more stable love relationship. Ages 12-up. (Aug.)