After losing her best friend to a hip (and mean) group of girls, 14-year-old Marlie finds high school to be her "personal war zone" in Tullson's (Saving Jasey) second problem novel, about teen bullying gone to extremes. When a circle of outcasts befriends Marlie, she slowly realizes that one of its leaders, Mike, is dangerous—he's used a boy to escalate a game of retaliation and he's beaten a girlfriend. Now Mike plans to create havoc at a school dance, by leading Marlie and the others to spray paint on the attendees—but could Mike be planning to use a real gun instead of a paint sprayer? Marlie's social woes are not her only source of angst: her younger brother has been kidnapped by their father (their parents are divorced) and her mother can focus on nothing but her own despair. Marlie finds solace with her mother's friend, Chuck, an undertaker whose avuncular support makes him the most affecting character in the novel. A melodramatic climax leads to a tidy ending, in which Marlie hatches a plot to have Mike turned in and manages to find her brother. Marlie's afflictions multiply into a morass that bogs down the narrative and nullifies the suspense. Ages 12-up. (Apr.)
