Reviewed by Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky" for TeensReadToo.com

This fast-paced read presents the frightening side of high schools today. The action starts by page five, when an unknown shooter is heard firing shots in the high school quad. Terrified students run screaming in all directions. One small group barricades themselves in the school store.

C. G. Watson begins her story on Monday, April 6. Through flashbacks, the reader learns about the lives of the students at Muir High School. Everyone gets to tell their story - the Jocks, the Freaks, the Techies, the Drama Queens, the Choirboys, etc. Each group has the potential to have spawned the mystery shooter.

Could the violence be the result of "roid rage," homophobia, a jealous girlfriend or boyfriend, or some nerd sick of teasing and taunts? All aspects of today's teens and their roller coaster ride called high school appear in this book. The characters, though fictional, are frighteningly similar to real life. Readers will recognize their fellow students and will probably shudder to think how close to home this story hits.

QUAD speaks to the problems faced by many teens and offers many opportunities for discussion of current topics. Every library needs a copy, and perhaps every school curriculum needs to adopt it as a learning tool in the classroom. ( )

Susan says: This is a story told in many voices and many flashbacks, but it still carries its suspense all the way to the end. There are many students affected by a shooting in the main quad of their high school, but they do not know who the shooter is. But as the students start to piece together how they and others acted in the two weeks leading up to the crime, they begin to realize how cruelty can affect other students. There are a lot of voices, some much stronger than others and some much more sympathetic. It might have been a stronger book if Watson had only used 5 or so stories instead of at least 10, but it all boils down to the way students act towards each other. And while the book ends with 'Why do people have to be so mean?' I don't think that is enough of an explanation for the cruelty many of the students display towards the shooter. This would be an interesting book club book, because even sympathetic characters can be cruel. Another look at a high school shooting, and this one has quite a bit of suspense in it, so I think readers would like it. ( )

I like this book, it is different from most books that you would usually read it a little bit of everything in it, football and its mixed with a little bit of mystery ( )

Carrie Gordon Watson says on her Web site (www.cgwatson.com) that she is "a high school teacher and young adult author. I haven't always been a teacher, but I've always been a writer." The Chico, California resident writes to me that "my 20 years of observation in the classroom have definitely helped this novel to take shape. & We as a community need to engage in discussion about school violence."

In "Quad" ($16.99 in paper from Razorbill/Penguin), the violence begins in the first chapter. Ranger Ng, a high schooler in his middle teens, is dying for a Mountain Dew. So, steeling himself against the bullies he knows hang out in the quad of fictional Muir High, Ng walks to the student store to satisfy his craving.

Sure enough, Ng has to deal with the jocks, including Brad Calvert, clustering near the soda machine. But their repartee ends suddenly when the sounds of "pop, pop, pop" register on Ng's brain. He shouts for the jocks to get inside the store. "Adrenaline shot through Ranger's body, coming out of his mouth in a blast of credibility. A flurry of students dashed past him into the student store. & Ranger turned, saw the wave of fearful expressions. Who would do this? he wondered. Who would want to shoot up the quad?"

Turns out plenty would. Watson's novel is really about what leads up to the violence, how so many of those in high school are victims of the meanness of others. The story is told in staccato chapters that move from the shooting going on in the quad to incidents in the preceding weeks and back again. There's Stone, characterized by Ng's friend Rufus as "the head juicer — Mr. Captain-of-the-football-team himself," whom the girls lust after. Like Brittany Smith, Nicole McClintock, Hayley Banks. Shaped by a dysfunctional home life, Stone is a demanding charmer who doesn't quite know when to stop.

Others have cause for rage, too. Sage Wood and her friend Paisley Reed are the butts of cruel jokes. Theo the brain and Maggie the writer are outsiders who plot revenge. Perry has never gotten over Christopher and now Christopher is falling for Stone, of all people, whom he is convinced is falling for him.

The language of the book is raw teenager as the freaks, the jocks, the preps, the choirboys, the techies and drama queens are confronted by the consequences of their choices. There is no happy ending here, just the haunting question: What has become of our sons and daughters?

Copyright 2007 Chico Enterprise-Record. Used by permission. ( )

By page 5 the unknown shooter is firing a weapon throughout the school. A group of frightened students have barricaded themselves in the school store.

The story takes place on the day of the shooting and through flashbacks highlighting members of the various school cliques - the Jocks, the Freaks, the Techies, the Drama Queens, the Choirboys, etc.

The mysterious shooter is revealed by the end of the book, but throughout the story the reader realizes that there are many students in the school whose experiences could have led them all to have reason to act in such a way. ( )