Clare is a senior at Duxbury High School in Massachusetts. She is captain of the girls’ ski racing and rowing teams. She is a part of both the National Honor Society and Spanish Honor Society, as well as various other clubs. Her favorite subject in school is math, and she hopes to study business management in college. Outside of school, she loves to be out on the water in Duxbury Bay and also has a job at Benchwarmers Pizza, where she makes food and helps manage the store.
Q&A with Clare
Who would you recommend Gripped Part 1 to and why? I would recommend this book to any young adult or high school student who might be feeling a little lost in life right now and needs to feel like they are not alone and that many others are going through similar situations.
How do you, as a young adult, relate to the story? As a young adult, I can relate to the story in many ways. For example, at high school parties, I have seen and experienced peer pressure firsthand, which many of the characters experience during the flashback.
What did you like best about the story? My favorite part of the story is that we get to hear it from everyone’s perspective. Sometimes it is harder to fully grasp a story when you only hear it from one character, but in this book we get to see everyone’s opinions and sides of the story.
What message does this book send to readers? I think this book tells readers that it is easy to get caught up in uncomfortable situations and that it is very important to stand up for yourself and others and what you believe in.
There are a few different storylines running through Gripped Part 1 because it is setting up the rest of the series. What storyline do you find the most interesting and why? My favorite storyline is between Cathy and Chantal. Sibling dynamics, especially between two sisters, can be very hard, especially when you feel competition with each other. I think it is really interesting and relatable how Cathy and Chantal interact with each other and how they grew apart as well.
Gripped Part 1 sets up the rest of the series but leaves a lot of things “hanging.” What are you most curious to uncover by reading Gripped Part 2? I am most curious about how Taylor will get involved with helping the police and if he will face any consequences for getting so deeply involved in drug dealing.
About the characters…
- Who do you feel bad for and why? I feel bad for Jon because he had a very strict set of morals and beliefs, and when he got these new cool friends, he seemed to lose them fairly quickly as a result of wanting to fit in.
- Who frustrates you and why? Someone who frustrates me is Marc because although the substances that his friends and brothers use are very bad for you, he often comes off as controlling rather than someone who is looking out for the people he cares about, and at the end of the day it isn’t his decision what others put into their bodies.
- Who do you most relate to and why? I relate to Cathy the most because I understand how she empathizes with everyone and is cautious about choosing one side at the risk of hurting someone else.
- Who do you like and why? I really like Lisa because I think she is very free-spirited and carefree, and does what she wants.
- Who do you dislike and why? I dislike Jordan because I don’t think he should be supplying the younger kids with alcohol and encouraging them to smoke behind his brother Taylor’s back.
Book Review
In Gripped Part 1, you are submerged into the deep and intriguing lives of a large high school friend group of both boys and girls. Their friendships started to blossom and grow during their middle school years when they were brought together through family problems, peer pressure, and hard choices. We get to see closely into the life of Taylor Dunkin, who is struggling to get back on his feet after a college football injury, and how it affected the friends and family around him. My favorite part of the book is how it flips between the past and the present, and how we get to hear the story from multiple characters’ perspectives.
Overall, I thought the book sends a meaningful and impactful message to young adults as it includes very realistic struggles that teenagers experience. It shows the consequences of making bad decisions and how they can affect the people closest to them negatively. Each character has their own story that can be easily relatable to. I recommend this book to all young adult readers and anyone who enjoys reading realistic fiction or stories about friendship and family.
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