#Gloria D. Miklowitz

[karenlacorte]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: Desperate Pursuit.

[eldweena]

When I was in the 6th grade I had a teacher named Mrs. Jordan who had a spinning black rack of books we were allowed to "check out" from her, since our middle school didn't have a library. (I know, a travesty.) I read every book on that rack, some of them (the Lois Duncan ones) multiple times. And I borrowed this book. And it's been stuck in my mind since 1993. Not the story so much as the cover, cause look at that! It was terrifying. All I could remember was something about a prom and the protagonist (featured on the cover) getting arrested after stalking her. I have searched for this book for literal decades and have never been able to find it because millions of teen books are about prom and the cover was super hard to find. Thanks to an angel named Angela here on Goodreads, I was finally able to track down a copy of the book and refresh my memories!

This is a book about a high school boy named Michael. He's popular and rich and seems to have it all. He's the school's star tennis player and is expected to get a scholarship after graduation. But what people don't know is that his dad is abusive. Michael is never good enough to measure up to his dad's expectations. And Michael is so stressed and depressed he is contemplating suicide. The one thing he claims is keeping him from completely giving up is his girlfriend, high school freshman Nicole.

Nicole enjoys Michael's attention. She enjoys the way he spoils her with expensive gifts and she likes that everyone envies her for catching his eye. But she doesn't <i>love</i> Michael, not the way he loves her. And sometimes he does things that bother her. He mocks her dream of becoming an astronomer. He sways her opinion to match his on every topic. He has to be with her every second of every day, smothering her. If she asks to just stay home and read a book instead of going to parties with him, he demeans her. She's getting pretty sick of him, actually, so when a new boy transfers to their school, a boy she has honest feelings for, she decides to break up with Michael.

Then the stalking begins.

Michael love bombs Nicole nonstop. He calls her incessantly, has an obscene number of flowers delivered to her house, charms her friends and family so that they think Nicole is crazy when she tells them he is verbally abusive, physically aggressive, and following her on her dates with her new boyfriend, Shane. Not even her best friend, Evie, or her mother believes her! They tell her she's overreacting and insist Michael is a great guy. But when Nicole makes plans to go to prom with Shane, Michael loses his mind completely and no one can deny anymore that he's got issues and Nicole needs to stay away from him.

Michael insists he give Nicole and Evie a ride home. But when Evie gets out of the car, Michael starts running red lights and stop signs and driving 80 miles an hour to terrify Nicole. When she finally escapes the car, he tries to mow her down. She runs home and her mom finally believes her. But calling Michael's father is futile; he blames Nicole rather than believe his own son has problems and needs help.

Michael tells the entire school that Nicole is going to prom with him. When she takes steps to correct the rumors, he tells everyone that she's been cheating on him, going so far as to jump onto a table at lunch to make a public announcement about it. Everyone starts to realize he's truly losing it.

Nicole's family talks to the school about Michael. His parents are called in and the school guarantees he will leave Nicole alone from now on, and if he makes one more threat against her, he'll be expelled - something his perfectionist father will never stand for.

Shane picks Nicole up to take her to prom, but winds up getting trapped in her house while her dad insists on taking tons of photos of them. By the time they are getting into the car to leave, Michael has punctured the tires. They're not going anywhere.

Then Michael opens fire...

In the beginning I thought this story sounded a bit juvenile. Like, it reads like middle grade. But when it gets intense, I'm telling you it made my adult heart pound and I felt really anxious! I can see why middle school-me loved this book and why it stuck in my mind for so long. I'm going to keep my copy and read it again when I'm in the mood for a thriller. I believe the author's intent was to show young adults the signs of abuse in a relationship, discern what is and isn't normal behavior from a romantic partner, and how to find help in these situations. I'm so glad that after all these years I have my own copy of this book.

Note: Yeah, it's kinda dated. lol No cell phones. No cordless phones, even. Video tapes. Cassette tapes. Today's youth might be confused by some elements. lol

[throughhelenhighwater]

A-Z Book Recommendations 📚✨

Inspired by @macrolit's post: (x) 

this is basically a list of all of my favorite books, each title has a link to a description of the book on the b+n website

A...American Gods by Neil Gaiman⚡️

B...Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates 🌍

C...Carry On by Rainbow Rowell 🌈 

D...Do Unto Animals by Tracey Stewart 🐶

E...The Enemy Has a Face by Gloria D. Miklowitz❔

F...Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella 🕶 

  ...Frankenstein by Mary Shelley ⚗️ 

G...Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn🔪 

   ...The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 🎲 

H...The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer 🦂 

   ...Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones 🔥

I...The Inkheart trilogy by Cornelia Funke 🖋 

J...Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë 👒 

K...The King's Equal by Katherine Paterson 👑 

L...The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien 🗡

M...The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo 🐘 

 N...Norte-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo 🕓

    ...Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman 🗺 

O...The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan ☂️

   ...The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton 📻 

P...Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 💌 

  ...The Penderwicks series by Jeanne Birdsall 🌿 

Q...?

R...Redwall by Brian Jacques ⚔️

S...The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway 🌅 

  ...The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 🔬

T...A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens 🇫🇷

  ...To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee ⚖️

U...Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe 🏞

V...The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis 🌊

W...The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin 💵

   ...The Wedding Planner's Daughter by Coleen Murtagh Paratore 👰 

X...Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathon Safran Foer 🏙

Y...The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman 🌼

Z...A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin ☄️

123...2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke 🚀

      ...1984 by George Orwell 👁

pls read them all!! :))