Random

By: Tom Leveen
Location: FIC LEV
Genre:  YA -  Cyber Bullying

Huge topics are covered in this moving and all to realistic book; cyber bullying, youth suicide, understanding sexuality, and the power of teenagers who hurt other so badly only to protect themselves. It is about being swept up in meanness.

" This is a novel better made for thinking, rather than enjoying--Random is a novel that I'll think about for a while in a way I hadn't anticipated.This novel, is sitting with me--it's taken refuge in my brain."  Jazman- Goodreads

Tori is known as one of the Canyon Seven, a group of teens whose malicious online comments has caused  of one of their classmates to commit suicide. It is the night before her trial begins, and she is busy hating everything about her life. She hates her parents who removed the computer from her room and took away her iPhone, leaving her with a crappy, old flip phone. She hates her brother who stopped talking to her when she was arrested. She hates the reporters who keep pounding on the door wanting her to make a statement.

Her phone rings and Tori assumes it is someone calling to harass her about the trial. Great, a crank call, just when all she wants to do is sleep until this whole thing is over.

Tori doesn't recognize the voice at the other end of the line. When the male voice identifies itself as someone named Andy, Tori still doesn't have a clue who he is. It turns out this Andy fellow has punched in her number at random. At least that's what he tells her. He then tells her he is planning to commit suicide. He describes how he is in his car parked at the top of a mountain road, and unless she can convince him that life is worth living, he plans to drive his car off the cliff.

Can Tori convince Andy not to end his life? Will talking to him help her make sense of the mess she is in and the potentially life-changing trial she faces in a few short hours? 

With all the attention on bullying and the connection to social media, RANDOM strikes just the right tone and its message will resonate loudly! -Sally Kruger Goodreads.com