Random by Tom Leveen
It’s random, the caller says when she picks up the phone. Tori knew she wasn’t supposed to be talking to anyone but she was intrigued by the phone number. She was hoping it was one of her friends, one of her school peers reconnecting with her as they have casted her aside when things with Kevin got complicated. The caller on the phone, could this be real? He’s considering suicide and she’s his lifeline, but why Tori? Tori believes it’s a joke considering she goes to trial tomorrow but as she slams the phone down, she reconsiders her split-second decision. Reconnecting this life-line, she redials. As she talks to the teen on the phone there are times I wonder who exactly is helping whom as they connect. The caller gets Tori to talk about the trial and Tori tries to defend her view of cyber-bullying. Tori believes since she only made a few comments she doesn’t feel it is a crime. Just hearing her talk about the issues puts everything into perspective. Whether she said anything or not, sometimes it is not just the words that do the most damage but the actions of the people involved. Their conversation was desperate at times, frantic and uncertain and then later the conversation relaxes; this high and low in their conversation was like riding a rollercoaster. I was losing my interest, my excitement and my path for how this book was going. Tori was literally driving me crazy, I just couldn’t connect with her. The ending, there was twist that put everything into perspective and it bought back the validity I was looking for. I was going for a 3 star review but the ending gave it a 3.5 star.
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