Break the Surface

BREAK THE SURFACE by Daniel Parker & Lee Miller

Category: Mystery/Thriller

Age Recommendation: Grades 9+

Release Date: 9/1/04

Publisher: Razorbill

Reviewed by:

Rating: 5 Stars

BREAK THE SURFACE is the type of book that reminds you of a car wreck--you know there's something really,

really

wrong that you should be looking away from, and yet you're helpless to stop yourself from gawking. From the

first pages of

the book, you know that there's something very, very wrong with the relationship between Tom and

Alice, and yet you can't

stop reading.

Thomas J. Sinclair has turned himself into another person. The popular kid who had tons of friends back in Vermont

is gone,

replaced by Tom, the quiet, unkempt kid who doesn't answer questions unless forced to and spends his free

time writing in a

journal during school days at Peter Cooper School in New York City. No longer carefree and

confident, we know that

Tom suffered some sort of tragic incident during his junior year back in Vermont, but it's not

until almost the end of the book

that we learn what that tragedy was. It doesn't matter, though, because BREAK THE

SURFACE is mostly about how Tom

comes to be involved with Alice.

Alice Brown is the "it" girl of Peter Cooper School. Former girlfriend (one of those off/on/off/on relationships) of "it"

guy

Carter Roy, popular, pretty, successful in all she does, she's the last person Tom wants to attract the attention of.

But attract

it he does, on the very first day, simply by being in her presence. From that day on, Alice spends her time

alternately hanging

on to Tom and seeming to push him away--and drawing her crowds of admirers with her

everywhere she goes.

BREAK THE SURFACE is set up to read as if it were Tom's personal journal, and it works. With every word, you

feel

yourself pulled deeper and deeper into Tom's world; and, through him, into Alice's world, as well. You know

from the very

first page that Tom Sinclair isn't the only person with issues--in fact, by the very last page, you might

feel, as I do, that Alice

is the person you should be scared of in this story, not Tom.

Pick up a copy and read it for yourself. You won't be disappointed in the story, and like that proverbial car wreck,

you'll

undoubtedly also be waiting to read the next book in the series, WALK ON WATER, with bated breath.

Watching Alice Bk. 1:
Break the Surface
by Daniel Parker & Lee Miller