JUST LIKE THAT
Marsha Qualey
Speak/Penguin Young Readers Group
Fiction
ISBN-10: 0142408301
ISBN-13: 9780142408308
240 pages

High school senior Hanna is having a bad day --- she's just broken up with her boyfriend, and no one seems to understand why she would dump such a perfect guy. Confused and sleepless, she heads out for a midnight walk on a brutally cold Minnesota winter night. As she sits by the lake feeling sorry for herself, she witnesses what she later realizes is the lead-up to a deadly accident, a tragedy she's convinced she could have prevented.

As artistic Hanna revisits the scene of the accident to sketch out her feelings, she notices another solitary visitor to the site. Soon she discovers that another person, Will, is hiding his own secret about that terrible night. United by their role in the tragedy, Will and Hanna develop an immediate physical and emotional attraction. Soon, though, Hanna discovers that Will is hiding more about himself than she had expected.

Before Hanna realizes Will's secret, though, she's already gotten inextricably involved with his large, emotionally intense family. Hanna, who is an only child being raised by her widowed mother, is attracted by Will's passionate, close-knit family, especially by his older sister Aerin, who is recovering from her own tragedy. Hanna's exposure to this new kind of family inspires her to seek out the truth about her own family roots.

Marsha Qualey's novels for young adults always seem to avoid the kinds of clichéd plots that can mar much fiction for teens. An examination of Hanna's guilt over the death of two teenagers could have deteriorated into a simplistic expose of survivor's guilt. Instead, though, Qualey delves into the complexities of Hanna's reactions; she explores the impact on Hanna's friendships, on her academic work, on her artistic expression, and on her close relationship with her mother. The weakest aspect of the novel is the brief "What Happens Next?" epilogue, which ties up plot ends a little too conveniently and simplistically for what is, in all other respects, a challenging and complex portrayal of an intelligent and complicated young woman.

   --- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

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