Period 8 by Chris Crutcher

This novel is presented as being about a young man, Paulie Baum, and his classmates from Period 8, a lunch group who have decided among themselves and their teacher that what is said in Period 8 stays in Period 8. Within the given summary, it is also mentioned that there is one student within Period 8 who is a class bully and can't be trusted. Paulie Baum also always tells the truth...

Well... let me tell you the truth:
This book is decent, but I wouldn't say that it's exactly what it's marketed as.

Where I was expecting to read about high school drama and coming of age issues, I found I was reading a mystery/thriller about sex, drugs, and crime. The plot itself turned out to be gripping. Paulie does end up telling a truth: that he cheated on his girlfriend, Hannah, and this sort of spirals out and pushes the rest of the story along. Most of the main characters come from Period 8, so I do understand the focus that was given to this class, but there wasn't nearly as much focus on the discussion in this class as I had originally thought. Definitely don't put much weight into the cover because it makes zero sense. ZILCH. There's no point in time where Paulie does push-ups or a girl floats around in the water like she's dead... I still don't get why the designers thought this was a good cover for the novel within.

To focus on the writing style just a bit, I'll note that it's told in third person, present. This narrative style is really obnoxious and very difficult to read/get used to. It's somewhat necessary for the point of views needed in order to understand the plot, but I have a hard time believing that there was no other way it could have been told. Eventually, I got over this and was able to just get into the action.

Last thing I want to talk about is the content. I read somewhere (maybe in the back blurb) that the author, Chris Crutcher, worked with teens as a counselor of some sort, and so I was kind of able to see where the "over the top" content was coming from, but part of me still felt like it was, well, a little over the top. I haven't read other books by this author, so I can't speak to what he's like as an author overall. But if you're interested in reading what I thought specifically about a few things, read ahead. Be aware, there are a few spoilers.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

The main plot revolves around Mary Wells, the girl who Paulie cheated with. First of all -- there's no ignoring the fact that sex is in this book. It's mentioned candidly and often. You don't "see" a whole lot, thankfully, but it's there. Mary goes missing and so Paulie, along with some of his friends from P8, go about trying to figure out where she's gone and whether or not there's foul play involved. It eventually comes out that Mary has been using oxys and that she's been involved in a sex ring (it's hinted/implied/assumed(?) that she was forced in to doing both the drugs and the sex). AS IF THIS ISN'T ENOUGH, the sex ring and all of the other horrid crimes and wrong-doings that take place are being spurred on by one of the students from P8.

The thing isn't that there are shady things happening in this high school. These things do happen in real life; I'm in no way saying that they don't. What I am saying is that I wasn't expecting it at all from the description and that I felt like in the end, I couldn't see this really having happened. Something about either the way it was put together, the way it was written, or the combination of plot points made me feel like it was in fact fictional... and though I know that I'm reading a fictional piece, I don't exactly like to feel reminded of that through the writing. In short, it felt like a Lifetime-movie-on-page.

I'm not saying that I regret reading it -- just that I probably wouldn't suggest it right away and that I think there are a lot of great books out there that far surpass this one.