Alice and the Fly

When Greg “Fly” Hall, a teenager from wealthy Skipdale, falls for a girl named Alice from poverty-stricken Pitt, he imagines that he can save her from her abusive father and bully of a brother. But Greg—labeled “psycho” by his classmates for his uncontrollable fits, lisp, and non-communicative nature—faces a challenging route to protecting Alice. With his workaholic father, dance-obsessed sister, and social-climbing mother involved with their own interests, Greg resigns himself to following Alice and watching out for “Them,” imaginary spiders that threaten to devour Greg and those he loves. Told alternately through Greg’s diary and police transcripts, Rice’s debut maintains an atmosphere of increasing dread as Greg gets closer to an approaching party and as memories from his youth, including a boating accident and a dementia-afflicted grandmother, feed into his paranoia. Despite the misguided help of his teacher and his mother, Greg skirts closer to psychosis with chilling nightmares that indicate his schizophrenic state. In the heartbreaking ending, Rice poses compelling questions about guilt, responsibility, and the culture of objectification that lead to Greg’s final acts. Ages 12–up. (May)