Exit Here.

In his debut outing, Myers delivers a relentlessly bleak take on the self-destructive lives of a group of teenagers. Nineteen-year-old Travis moves back in with his well-to-do parents and younger sister after a failed year of college in Arizona and a licentious trip to Hawaii on his parents' dime. Travis immediately falls back in with his crowd of friends, none of whom, in an escalating whirlwind of cocaine, sex and underage drinking, spend much time sober at all. If Travis's usage (which has instilled similar interests in his sister) is never directly sanctioned by their parents, then it's certainly overlooked. As Travis reconnects with old friends as well as an ex-girlfriend, it becomes apparent that he is avoiding events that occurred while he was in Hawaii and attempting to return his life to how it used to be. After an interminable litany of violent sex, abusive relationships, drunk driving and rampant coke use, lives begin to fall apart, though only Travis-gradually-begins to realize the futility of this self-perpetuating cycle. Myers's writing is heavy on detail-particularly when highlighting the clothing, music, movies and slang that accompany the kids' lifestyle-and at times apparel seems to serve as a proxy for personification. While Myers seems reluctant to pass judgment on his teenage characters, his novel carries an implicit indictment of the parents who allow their children to abase themselves to such a degree. Ages 16-up.