Gotcha, teen novel by Shelley Hrdlitschka

Attention Hollywood, Oops.....
I mean Attention Canadian Indie scene.
This novel should be a Movie!!! I loved it!

Rich with the complexities of teen behavior, a great concept full of substance and peppered with intrigue makes for an exciting teen novel called "Gotcha" I couldn't put it down. Shelley Hrdlitschka, an award winning teen novelist does an excellent job of entertaining while educating the reader on how teen choices can quickly and inadvertently go awry. Even for students with the best intentions. Gotcha, is a great piece of fiction based on a true graduation ritual, played at high schools in the vicinity of authors home. Shelley obviously has an excellent understanding of current language amongst teens and doesn’t hesitate to reference, hotmail, and msn terms as forms of communication.

Having a niece in high school and young adults at home I am pretty savvy to what goes on in high schools. Still I'd never heard a story even close to this, neither had they. With an adult advantage I found only one predictable character in the novel. For the most part it was an intense read, piquing my curiosity throughout. Wondering what would happen to the high achieving protagonist Katie!

This novel would make an excellent movie, with the meaty story line far surpassing the academy award winning screenplay “Juno”! I would recommend this novel to even the most reluctant reader, and plan to get a signed copy for my niece. Parents and teachers wishing to understand high school dynamics, pressures of being a teen, possible consequences of being enmeshed in a scary underground grad ritual such as this, would be well advised to give this interesting piece of fiction a read.

For a few moments while reading this book I was taken back to the city I was raised in, where Shelley now resides. I could imagine all the places she described in the book, as places I'd frequented as a teen.So of course it made the book even more visual and personal for me! I won't delude myself, because really the settings could be based anywhere!

Thank you Shelley, your novel was informative, very engaging, with a profound ending that made me cry! Now on to “Sister Wife”, Shelley’s latest triumph!

You can read Shelley's recent interview with Stephen Patrick Clare here!