Someone to Love Me

Eyerly, who has written movingly of the pain and poignancy of growing up in so many novels, stumbles here with a heroine who is strangely inaccessible to readers. Patrice doesn't really know why Lance likes herLance, who could have any girl and in fact, dates Stephanie. And Patrice doesn't question Lance when all he wants to do is have furtive sex with her. Her best friend guesses that Patrice is pregnantit hadn't occurred to Patrice, but she drifts along in the pregnancy. Patrice is thick-headed, from the first hour of her relationship with Lance to the moment she gives birth; readers may become irritated by her denseness. Unfortunately for fans of Eyerly's gritty, often humorous realism, this novel is a superficial look at the serious problem of teenage pregnancy. (12-up)