Bound To Stay Bound

Bulletin for the Center... - 06/01/2011 Alex is wracked by guilt when his friend Thomas drowns in the river near their boarding school. All four of the boys involved had been drinking and had dared each other to jump off a rock, but there’s more to the story that the survivors are trying to hide. Glenn, the school’s golden boy, insists that Alex keep his mouth shut and that Clay will take the fall with a version that limits Glenn and Alex’s involvement, but that plan may fail if their teacher, Miss Dovecott, saw more than she’s telling about the incident. Alex processes his guilt almost obsessively by writing in his journal, employing quotations from Moby-Dick as thought-provoking section headers as he tries to sort out what kind of person he is. He also begins to obsess over Miss Dovecott, who encourages his writing, and whom he imagines to be encouraging something else as well. Glenn pressures him to use his influence with the teacher to find out what she knows while also pushing their relationship to the point of having something to blackmail her with, and Alex reluctantly plays along. Hints of homosexuality punctuate the text, providing inferences that Glenn may have had a motive to silence Thomas, as being outed in a 1980s boarding-school setting would have been devastating for the popular student athlete. The plot is dark and titillating enough, but it is Alex’s poetry and prose that shines with somber light here. Densely literary in itself and thoughtfully engaged with evocative passages from Melville’s classic, Alex’s journal charts the morose imaginings and ethical stalemates of a teenage boy with something to hide, immersing readers in the “damp, dreary November in [his] soul.” Readers with a taste for the lyrical despair and well-phrased melancholy of unresolvable guilt will find satisfaction here. KC - Copyright 2011 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

School Library Journal - 06/01/2011 Gr 9 Up—In October 1982, Alex, who is starting his junior year at an all-boys' boarding school, is plagued with guilt following the drowning of a friend that he and another student, Glenn, witnessed subsequent to the boys' drinking and jumping into a rocky river. The two fear expulsion and lie about what really happened, but they are not sure of what the new, young English teacher knows as she was at the scene after the drowning. Alex copes by spending his days in the library reading Moby-Dick and writing in a journal. He likes the extra attention he gets from Miss Dovecott because of his gift for writing and because he is in love with her; however, Glenn thinks that she senses their guilt and that she is trying to prove that they are lying about the situation. The boys make a plan to jeopardize Miss Dovecott's reputation, and Alex must choose between his own fate and hers. The story builds to a climax that will have readers on edge. It could be read alongside many of the classics that deal with friendship and loyalty, as well as deceit. The structure of the book, with its section headings and quotes, will help to focus the narration for readers as it goes back and forth in time, and the haunting tone of the story line will intrigue them. Those who are looking for something to ponder will enjoy this compelling read.—Karen Alexander, Lake Fenton High School, Linden, MI - Copyright 2011 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Booklist - 07/01/2011 *Starred Review* At the beginning of his junior year of high school, Alex loses a good friend to an accidental—and drunken—death, and by the end of that first semester, he has lost his moral innocence as well. After Alex’s friend dies, he retreats emotionally while also allowing his new, young, and pretty English teacher to coax out his poetic abilities. Meanwhile, Glenn, another student and former friend, tortures Alex with doubts about Alex’s own motives related to both the dead boy and the English teacher, encouraging Alex to question his very self. Although Alex knows that his admiration for the teacher is fanciful and not connected to the fact that she may have witnessed certain events related to the death, he recognizes that he is socially outclassed by the powerful Glenn. Can Alex muster the will to counter Glenn's manipulations to oust the teacher? Both plotting and characters are thoroughly crafted in this stellar first novel. The poetry that Hubbard produces from Alex’s pen is brilliant, and the prose throughout is elegant in its simplicity. Although the novel takes place in the early 1980s, it could indeed unfold at almost any time, and its boarding-school setting is specific yet accessible to readers in any school setting. Reminiscent of John Knowles’ classic coming-of-age story, A Separate Peace (1959), this novel introduces Hubbard as a bright light to watch on the YA literary scene. - Copyright 2011 Booklist.

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