The Spaces Between Us by Stacia Tolman
Published by Henry Holt & Company on July 23rd 2019
ISBN: 1250174929
Pages: 304
Goodreads

The Spaces Between Us

 

Serena and Melody Grimshaw have been best friends forever.  This book examines that friendship and, when Melody is murdered in the end, the feeling Serena has that her life is now without meaning.  This book follows the lives of two girls who are starting their senior year in high school and wanting desperately to leave their failing factory town in New York state.  Readers learn about the girls’ family members and the prejudice that has always stung Melody because her family are considered trash.  Along the way there is the Homecoming dance, a stint as a cheerleader, and a trip across country that Serena takes to attempt to save Melody from a horrible boyfriend who has hired her out as a stripper.  Just when it seems that the boyfriend may be finally out of her life she first returns to him and later he follows her from California to Nevada where he strangles her.  As a background to all this drama Serena is studying upward mobility and is interviewing many people along the way in order to fulfill an independent study requirement for a Western Civilization class she had failed.  This is an excellent realistic fiction book that reads very quickly and is recommended for grades 9-12.

 

Reviewed by Ellen Spring, Oceanside High School, Rockland