Author Description

It's 1985. Highland Central is a powder keg. Something will make it go crack.It's 1985 in the Chicago suburbs, and the gang's all here. The teen princess. The bad boy. The punk rock lesbian. The high school. The mall. The blood-stained Mercedes. Misogyny. Homophobia. Class warfare. Cocaine. It's a party, crank the Bowie, let's dance.Samantha Ward can be a little mean, but mostly she's a nice girl. She's not doing coke in the bathroom or having sex by the bleachers. Her big rebellion is sneaking Madonna chains past her pearl-wielding mother. So when the worst boy in school starts a war with her, she's shocked. Still. He may be the Devil of Highland Central, but Samantha's on deck for Queen Bitch. Barbie girls like Samantha rub Jason Devlin the wrong way. Whatever. Plenty of girls rub him any way he wants. School is hell, home is worse, and girls and fights make good distractions. Back in town after years in London, Pris is Jason's best distraction yet, and they're not even fooling around. Jason doesn't get why her old life haunts her, but Pris has an edge, the kind that guards secrets, and Jason knows all about that. "Prissy" and "Sammie" were best friends before, and now Samantha doesn't even notice her. Jason wants to teach her she can't lookthroughpeople like that. But when Samantha starts looking, she sees too much, and sleepy suburbs don't give up their secrets gently. As Highland's shadows erupt in violence, can high school enemies fight together to survive a bigger battle?