In
Simone Elkeles' Leaving Paradise, Caleb Becker is back home from juvie and no one knows how to act around him- especially not Maggie Armstrong, who's techincally the reason he spent the past year there. After Caleb got drunk at a party and decided to drive home, Maggie's life was never the same. She spent her junior year in rehad and all sorts of hospitals, got her scholarship to study abroad and leave Paradise revoked, and will now have to forever walk with a limp because of the accident. However, there's a lot Maggie and everyone else in the city of Paradise don't know about what really happened that night and as Maggie and Caleb get closer, she discovers that Caleb's got a lot to hide. Is it possible to forgive the person who ruined your life when they re-enter it and are suddenly the only person you could actually trust?
This novel is a mystery of sorts, starting from "what really happened that night" to the confusing feelings Caleb and Maggie start to develop for each other and I recommend teens everywhere to read it.
-Reviewed by Rita, grade 12.
Comments
Leaving Paradise by Simone Elkeles is a great book that starts with drama and slowly turns into romance. Two amazing genres that teenagers love reading about in one awesome book. This book will make you cry and smile as you read through it and experience the emotions of the characters. You sort of become like a character in the book that feels everything that all the other actual characters feel. Is it possible to fall in love with someone that practically made your whole life a living hell? Read this book and you will know the answer to that question.
Yuliya, grade 12
Glendale Central Library