Dial, October 28, 2010
ISBN: 978-0803734548
Available: New
In 1973, when Richard Peck was just starting out as a writer, Robert Cormier’s book The Chocolate War, in which a student seized control of his high school from adult authority figures and brutally bullied his peers, changed YA literature forever. Three Quarters Dead is Peck’s contemporary response to Cormier’s novel.
Richard Peck is a gifted and versatile writer with the ability to create unique characters and distinctive voices and settings. He can be funny, make you jump, and creep you out, sometimes all at the same time. And the concept behind Three Quarters Dead is fascinating, and dreadful. The book is entirely ruined, though, by his choice of narrator.
Kerry is new, and lonely, in her large high school. She knows she doesn’t quite fit in and is fascinated by the three girls at the top of the heap- Tanya, Natalie, and Makenzie- and she’s thrilled when Tanya, the queen bee, invites her to join their inner circle. Tanya is beautiful, intelligent, and confident, but she’s also arrogant, vindictive, and manipulative. Even though Kerry knows she’s being used, she still follows Tanya and the other girls. I hated Kerry. She was naive, grating, and whiny and she did things she knew were wrong, cruel, and dangerous, even when she didn’t want to. She wasn’t a sympathetic character, she was just pathetic, and it destroyed the flow of the story for me.
Peer pressure, bullying, and hazing are in the news right now, and Three Quarters Dead slams home how scary it can be. Tanya, Natalie, and Makenzie are in a fatal car crash when Tanya calls Kerry from her cell phone while driving. A month goes by, and Kerry gets a text on her cell from Tanya telling her to come to New York City. Tanya, Natalie, and Makenzie are all there. When she gets to the city, they’re looking pretty good for dead girls. Of course, somebody always has to pay a price when it comes to cheating death.
Three Quarters Dead is compelling, and in some places sickening and truly frightening. It could work as a contemporary complement to The Chocolate War, as it addresses some of the same themes that appear in Cormier’s novel, so on that level I think Peck succeeded. But I missed the humor and development of the main character that I’m used to in his work, and outside of the appalling Halloween incident, the main feeling I came away with from Three Quarters Dead was exasperation.
Given the prominence of the author, the relevance of the theme, and the quality of the writing, this book is highly recommended for young adult collections in public libraries and in high school and junior high school library media centers, for grades 8 and up.
Contains: bullying, references to abortion and drugs, some violence
Reviewed by: Kirsten Kowalewski