The Body of Christopher Creed
posted in mystery, award winning, realistic fiction, young adult, book review |
The Body of Christopher Creed by Carol Plum-Ucci (hardcover 2000, softcover 2001)
Torey Adams: “When perfect lives come crashing down, some people say they come down with a vengeance. The more perfect the life, the more complete the destruction…I seem to remember the theory that we’re all dealt fifty-two cards by the end of our lives. If you get all aces in the beginning, you have a greater chance of getting your twos and threes in rapid succession later…For sixteen years I had a perfect life. I got my share of twos or three in the weeks following the corpse.”
Torey Adams is on the list–the list of guys with perfect lives according to Christopher Creed’s enigmatic suicide/disappearance letter. Torey narrates the novel as he recounts the events following Christopher Creed’s disappearance. Christopher’s disappearance, the disappearance of a kids that had previously only received attention when he was being picked on or beaten up, has gripped the attention of the entire town of Steepleton, New Jersey.
Torey is puzzled by Christopher’s perception that he’s one of the guys with a perfect life. Before Christopher’s disappearance, Torey accepted without question the division between the affluent “in” kids and the outsider “boons” (so named for their residence in the boondocks). After Christopher’s disappearance, Torey begins to question the labels that kids stick on other kids (in this book, the main labels under consideration are boon and slut). As Torey tries to understand life through Christopher’s eyes, he begins to see Steepleton’s (and his own) hypocrisy, injustice, arrogance, and heartlessness toward those on the outside of “cool”.
In his quest for understanding and self-pardon, Torey forms an unlikely friendship with Bo “boon” Richardson and Ali “slut” McDermott. Each for his or her own reasons, together they delve into Christopher’s disappearance. The trio are caught in their attempt to retrieve Christopher’s diary from his room, and their investigation ends up having repercussions for the entire town. Steepleton’s secrets, scandals, and mysteries of the past are brought out into the open
Basically, Plum-Ucci is plumbing the depths of teen angst and arrogance, superficial behavior, insidious social cliques, and personal responsibility. Christopher’s disappearance brings Steepleton to its knees and makes it clear that words and actions have consequences. She also includes ideas about withholding judgment of others. Christopher’s harshest critics and abusers would not have been so quick to do him harm if they had first stopped to take a long, hard look at themselves.
This book reminds me quite a bit of Gail Giles’ What Happened to Cass McBride? in the whole “be careful what you say and do for it impacts those around you and may come back to haunt you” sort of way. The Body of Christopher Creed is by no means light reading, and it is recommended by its publishers (and by Publisher’s Weekly) for young adults 12+ (Note: I appended this sentence on December 01 as Renay from the-book-ninja.org pointed out my wording was poor, thanks Renay).
While the book may engender some challenges (discussion and/or action related to suicide, sex, and violence are all included in the book), the overall message is an important one for young people (and all people) to understand–treat others with the respect they deserve as fellow human beings.
