Period 8

by Chris Crutcher

[Rowena]

I’ve never read anything by this author before but I wanted to read this story because for some reason, I thought someone in Period 8 was a serial killer and well, I don’t know why I thought that but I did and I was curious. So, I read it.

So Period 8 is basically a place where students can come and talk about anything and everything. It’s supposed to be like a support group run by Mr. Logs, a teacher on the brink of retirement. This is the last year that they’ll have Period 8 with Mr. Logs and lots of things are happening. Girls go missing, one of the boys turns out to be a big fat liar and the others are starting to take notice.

The main character, Paulie Baum tells the truth when it matters. He’s not a liar and when he cheats on his girlfriend, he’s honest with her about it even though he doesn’t understand why he cheated and didn’t want to cheat. But he’s got to live with the consequences of his actions so he comes clean. Understandably, his girlfriend Hannah is pissed and dumps him. Paulie’s bummed about it but he’s dealing with it, the best way that he knows how. When one of his supposed friends starts sniffing around Hannah, Paulie isn’t happy about it but what can he do?

So this story is character oriented and at times it was a little slow going but I can’t say that I was too bothered by that. Because, I kept reading. Lots of things are happening, lots of characters are introduced and there were times when I had to take a step back to organize my thoughts and keep the story straight but overall, I enjoyed the book. There were quite a few things that happened that made my eyes roll down the street (like that 911 call at the end. I could not get over that. I mean, seriously?) but aside from that, the story clipped on at a pace that worked for the story and when I finished the book, I was glad to have read it.

Paulie was a good main character. I liked getting to know him and I liked how he tried to do what was right even when it was really hard. His life was realistic and his thoughts and reactions rang true for me so it was easy to like him. However, my favorite character in this whole book was Hannah. I liked her take no crap from anyone attitude and I love that she was always open and honest with herself and more importantly with everyone around her. She didn’t pull any punches and when she was mad, you knew it.

It was really easy for me to pick up on who the bad guy was, what was going to happen and when it was going to happen but even with all of that, I still enjoyed it. The slow pick up and the 911 call was really my only complaints about the book. Everything else was delightful and interesting. I’m not at all mad that I read this book.