And if that plot occasionally strains credulity, it taps into a deep-seated teen paranoia that adults are out to get them. Indeed, the entire cast is also notable for its diversity (in terms of ethnicity, sexuality, ability) in ways both organic and incidental to the plot. The other three teens, Antoine, Evangeline, and Kenyon–along with their parents–are similarly complex. His famous psychiatrist father has cowed both Caleb and his mother, and harbors a mean streak of his own. Caleb is aloof and harbors a dark side, but is fiercely loyal to his friends his second-person narration is unsettling and underscores the notion that he might have sociopathic tendencies. She loves her overbearing single mother but wishes for a greater measure of freedom. Saralinda has diabetes–and a cane–but she is a hopeless romantic and a keen observer of her classmates. Werlin simultaneously deepens characterization and unfolds the plot in alternating narrative voices from two of the teens, Saralinda and Caleb they are attracted to each other but slow to act on it. The remaining students band together, pool their information, and come to a horrific conclusion: each of their parents is involved in a conspiracy to murder them. The building collapses, and they all survive, but one of them dies shortly afterward in an automobile accident. Five students at a private boarding school are called together under mysterious circumstances to a remote, dilapidated building on campus. 9/06) returns to her mystery/thriller roots for another psychological page-turner. 9/08, and sequels), Werlin (The Rules of Survival, rev. Over the top, definitely, but also a compulsive read.Īfter a three-book detour through the fantasy genre (Impossible, rev. Up until the last moment, it’s not clear who is going to make it out alive. People are on the run, bodies are piling up, and murder is in the air. Although the psychology of the kids-and their parents-is a huge part of the story, it’s the nonstop action that sweeps readers along.

Caleb’s father is a celebrity psychiatrist who has convinced his son that the boy is a bad seed, a danger to everyone around him. Those two are the alternating narrators, and from them we learn that diabetic, physically challenged Saralinda lives with a smothering mother who would like her daughter to be dependent on her. Someone, maybe plural, is trying to kill them, but what does this unlikely group have in common? Except for Antoine and Evangeline, they barely know each other-although Saralinda does have a crush on Caleb.

Five teens at a private school are invited to a Leader’s Club orientation at a dilapidated campus building, and then the roof falls in-literally.

Impossible by nancy werlin summary