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Sunday, December 29, 2013

Full-Ride by Margaret Peterson Haddix


Becca Jones is the daughter of a criminal. She and her mother have decided to leave their old home behind and start fresh in a place where no one knows their past. No one seems to suspect a thing with her mother's careful decisions and her father's lawyer's help. Becca feels almost normal. Of course she doesn't have a Facebook account, cell phone, or the big mansion she used to live in but things could have been worse. She could have had to stay at her old house where everyone was judging her. As she begins to adapt to her new life, she starts to plan for the future. But going to college might dig up her past and Becca isn't sure she wants to risk it.
The overall plot was extremely original and I don't recall reading many thrillers with this kind of theme. I would have liked the ending to be wrapped up better rather than the cliffhanger I was given but other than that, the ending was perfect. The pace of the story was great for the most part but about two-thirds of the way through it got a bit slow and then suddenly in the end the pace picked up instantly.
Becca and her mother seemed to be rather boring and somewhat stale characters in the beginning but slowly began to grow and change. Her father was the most interesting character in the story. This is probably largely due to the fact that everything happened because of his actions. He had a complex personality that was much more difficult to understand than Becca's and her mother's. Becca's friends add a bit of personality into the story but sometimes feel as though they are present purely to add suspense and fill up the plot.