First, it was Lise, falling from her desk during a quiz, clutching her throat and frothing at the mouth. Then it was Gabby, twisting and jerking in her chair right in the middle of the spring concert, still holding her cello as she crashed to the floor. And finally Kim, who dropped during P.E., screaming and vomiting. Soon, there is an epidemic of seizing girls in Deenie’s small high school, twitching, ticking and muttering. “There was a low rumble everywhere…the thrum of confusion, skidding sneakers, a girl’s lone yelp, a teacher trying to be heard…more than twenty wrapped around the hallway in groups and individually. Drooping against lockers, slumped on the floor, their legs flung out, doll-like, one in the middle of a corridor, spinning like a flower child.†What is causing the strange convulsions that seem to have infected the female teenage population of Deenie’s school? Is it the poison-green algae covered local lake that is off limits but still tempts everyone with its silky, warm water? “They weren’t supposed to go into the lake. No one was. School trips, Girl Scout outings, science class, you might go and look at it, stand behind the orange mesh fences.†Or is it the HPV vaccine that the school system made mandatory for every high school girl? “The first shots were six months ago. HPV vaccines are more effective if administered before sexual debut. That’s what the department of health poster in the nurse’s office said.†No one knows for sure, but the parents in Deenie’s town are getting very anxious, eager to find the person or thing responsible for the plague that seems to be affecting their best and brightest girls. And Deenie is worried that it is only a matter of time before their scrutiny falls on her. Because the one thing the first three afflicted girls have in common is their close connection to her. “’But nothing happened to me,’ [Deenie] said. ‘I’m fine.’ ‘Well,’ Gabby said, looking down as their feet dusted along the glistening grass of the square, ‘some people are just carriers. Maybe that’s what you are.’†Deenie is running scared, desperate to find out the real reason that all friends have fallen ill. But the secret to their mysterious seizures is actually much closer to home than she ever could have imagined. Megan Abbott’s gripping adult-published tale of adolescent lies, lust and power reads like a modern day version of The Crucible
