Taken from Waterstones.com:
"Four girls. One dead body. A whole lot of guilt. Alice King isn't expecting the holiday of a lifetime when she sets off with her classmates on a trip to the Scottish Wilderness, but she's not exactly prepared for an experience beyond her darkest nightmares... Alice and her best friend Cass are stuck in a cabin with Polly, the social outcast, and Rae, the moody emo-girl. Then there's Tara - queen of mean. Powerful, beautiful and cruel, she like nothing better than putting people down. Cass decides it's time to teach Tara a lesson she'll never forget. And so begins a series of events that will change the lives of these girls forever..."
To tell you how good this book is, let me set the scene for you: It's a Friday night after a long and hard week at work. I've finally succumbed to a bad case of hay fever and have picked up a nasty cold on top of that which has left me feeling wrecked but I have a long day at work ahead of me on Saturday and so I want nothing more than to go to bed and try to sleep it off but I'm not yet sleepy as it's only 7pm. I'm reading another book but tonight I just can't face it because it's been so predictable so far. I spot Torn on the top of my reading pile and decide to start that instead, intending to put it down by 8pm to finally get some rest. As it starts I'm intrigued as Clarke doesn't jump in and tell you what happened on the trip straight away. Suddenly I find that I've run out of pages and it's after midnight. And I'm a little disappointed as I want to know what happens next! Do they all get arrested?! Does Alice make it up with Jack?! It was a true gripping page turner that somehow made me forget just how truly terrible I was feeling!
Clarke's style of writing is really easy to get carried away in. The whole book is fast-paced and done well. The characters are all brilliantly written too. Rae is a girl who keeps to herself and this comes across really well as instead of mentioning that she's like this at relevant points, Clarke doesn't mention her at all or if Alice is thinking of Rae she doesn't suddenly see her standing alone in a quiet corner or something in the way that some authors use to try to portray this type of character. It makes it much more realistic and it really is like you're in Alice's head.
With regards to Alice's head, I had quite an eerie experience whilst reading this novel. Alice was scarily like me! I've never identified with a character so strongly and so it was weird getting an insight into how things could be if I did one or two things differently and was bothered about popularity. (Just to clarify for any friends who read this, I wouldn't have gone along with the prank and would have gone for a teacher!) I love how Alice loves to go and hide in the library. It really was one of my favourite places to escape to and I highly recommend it!
The sequence of events flow really well and until Alice finds out the truth of what happened you can't quite work it out either. The whole way through you really get a sense of Alice's anxiety and it really is easy to imagine that this could happen in real life. You know what Alice is probably going to do in the end as you can tell what kind of girl she is really, but this doesn't take anything away from the story and the way it ends really does keep you hanging and wanting to know more (in a good way!).
This book should appeal to teenage girls (and grownups!) who are looking for a book without fantasy but that remains gripping and full of tension. There is a bit of sexual tension with the adorable love interest but it isn't anything too explicit. It's like the film Mean Girls but with a darker twist. It also contains the warning to be wary of the quiet girl who everyone puts down all of the time as when opportunity comes they might just find a permanent way to get revenge...
I give it 9/10!
Title: Torn
Author: Cat Clarke
Publisher: Quercus
Teenage Fiction
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