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A review by sc104906
The Gatekeepers by Jen Lancaster
1.0
Stephen, Owen, Kent, Mallory, and Simone all live in an upper class suburb of Chicago. This town thrives on the concept of "keeping up with the Jones's," which has resulted in a history of suicide clusters. The summer before this school year, a new suicide cluster has begun. The characters are reeling from the loss of their classmates and working to ways to keep more from dying.
I had a hard time with believing the voices within this book. Many of the perspectives did not feel like teenagers, with outdated pop culture references and teenager boys saying things that were completely unrealistic. In fact, many of the male characters felt very similar to the queen bee female character. I felt that the motivations behind certain character's motivations needed to be better developed. For example, how can Mallory be a complete jerk, but also be a great peer counselor, it didn't seem to fit. I also felt that there was not a balanced portrayal of suicide, it was more dark comedy mixed with statistics. This book wasn't for me, but might work for Lancaster's typical adult readers.
I had a hard time with believing the voices within this book. Many of the perspectives did not feel like teenagers, with outdated pop culture references and teenager boys saying things that were completely unrealistic. In fact, many of the male characters felt very similar to the queen bee female character. I felt that the motivations behind certain character's motivations needed to be better developed. For example, how can Mallory be a complete jerk, but also be a great peer counselor, it didn't seem to fit. I also felt that there was not a balanced portrayal of suicide, it was more dark comedy mixed with statistics. This book wasn't for me, but might work for Lancaster's typical adult readers.