Ive had Brent Hartingers Geography Club'on my to-read list for a while, so when The Last Chance Texaco'popped up as an Amazon freebie, I snapped it up.
Orphaned at a young age, Lucy Pitt has spent her childhood and teens moving between foster and group homes. But Lucy, like many children with her background, is a high-needs child, and her indiscretions over the years have meant that shes running out of options. In fact, when she arrives at Kindle House, it seems that this is her last chancemessing up here would result in her being sent to Rabbit Island (gruesomely described in the book as Eat-Their-Young Island), after which a future involving juvenile detention and prison is the norm.
Needless to say, Lucy is conflicted upon arriving at Kindle House. Shes scarred by her past experiences and has difficulty trusting or caring about others. Her mindset is to allow others to assume the worst of her because of the safety that can be found in low expectations and in not submitting herself to the inevitable emotional pain that comes with trusting those around her. But Kindle House is different. The counsellors genuinely seem to care about the kids in their charge, with one in particular, an ex-Kindle House resident, going out of his way to support Lucy and ensure that shes treated fairly.
Of course, the reach of a counselor can only extend so far, and Lucy finds herself fighting for survival in a school of rich kids who have it in for groupies. Soon enough, Lucy has two strikes against her, and when someone begins torching cars close to Kindle Home, shes at the top of the list of suspects.
Last Chance Texaco'is simply but movingly written, and is beautifully suited to its target audience. Hartinger paints a convincing picture of the challenging personalities and histories of the peopleboth children and counsellersfound in a group home environment, and Lucy has enough verve and spunk to come across as highly likeable despite her attachment issues and natural suspicion of others.'Older readers, however, might long for a little more depth in terms of the relationships between the charactersparticularly between Lucy and rich boy Nate, and Lucy and the arsonist, whose identity is surprising in that it comes out of nowhere, rather than being more firmly telegraphed early on.
Having no personal experience with group homes or children from group homes, I was surprised to see the animosity shown towards these characters by both children and adults in the books, but obviously cant comment on whether this was accurate or not. I did, however, find the scene with Lucy sneaking into juvenile detention a little pie-in-the-sky: Id imagine that there would be some slightly more solid security systems in place there! The ending, too, was a little saccharine for my tastes, although it does fit with the characters and set-up that Hartinger has created.
In all, Last Chance Texaco'is a solid read thats both sympathetic and eye-opening, and that moves along at a pace that will have readers turning the pages. I found it an interesting complement to two similarly themed books Ive read recently: The Language of Flowers'and Zelah Green.
Rating: 
(good)
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