The Lure

Ewing returns to the subject matter of her novels Drive-By and Party Girl—teens pulled into the world of gangs—with the story of 15-year-old Blaise Montgomery. In Blaise’s Washington, D.C. neighborhood, money is tight, drugs are sold openly, guns are everywhere, and gangs offer power and protection. Despite the grandmother who’s desperately trying to save for Blaise’s education, Blaise decides to be jumped into a local gang. Ewing surrounds her heroine with a large cast of friends, potential boyfriends, and threats—first and foremost Trek, the gang leader who sees Blaise’s beauty underneath her baggy clothes and uses her to lure rival gangsters. Unfortunately, as the body count mounts, with Blaise trying to keep her hands and her conscience clean, the improbabilities do, too; Blaise is an odd combination of super-tough and very naïve, especially where Trek is concerned. While the many small plot twists aren’t predictable, the overall trajectory is, especially when Blaise says things like “a tremor of premonition came over me that my future and Trek’s were on an inescapable collision course.” Ages 14–up. (Feb.)