Jailbait

by Lesléa Newman

Book Overview

Andrea Robin Kaplan is a clique unto herself. In other words, she has no friends. Her only goal is get through high school with the least amount of humiliation possible, which should be easy-- nothing... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Library Binding
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385902301
• ISBN13: 9780385902304
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Delacorte Press
• Length: 239 Pages
• Weight: 0.89 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.7"
• Age Range: 14 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 9 to 12

Customer Reviews

Amazing

I finished Jailbait a couple of hours ago, and I'm still shaking. It's a young adult novel, but it could also be horror. Leslea Newman does a perfect job of detailing how an average girl from a sleepy suburban town can suddenly find herself to be "jailbait." I knew this book was about an underage girl, Andrea, who gets involved with an older man, so when I started reading it yesterday I assumed that although I may find the story interesting and well-written (which it absolutely is!), I doubted I would ever be able to identify with this character at all. I would never get into some strange man's car to begin with. Or even if I did, I certainly never would get physical with him. And there's no way I would ever lie or steal for some guy. Or would I? Am I really above succumbing to some suave older man's wiles? While I never had an experience quite like Andrea's, in retrospect . . . I did take some pretty brainless risks back when I was a teenager. And I rationalized them the same way Andrea does. This novel made me question my self-assuredness and highlights how stealthily sexual predators operate. Jailbait is scary not just because of the plot but also because how easily readers, via Newman's honest prose, can identify with Andrea's state of mind and the emotions propelling her well-meaning but destructive choices. Jailbait should be required reading for all young adults, and their parents.

An interesting read

The title and cover seem to imply more drama than this novel provides - Andi's affair with an older man, Frank, is instead a private matter, which makes the story all the more realistic. In 1971, Andi is fifteen-going-on-sixteen, a somewhat overweight (so she thinks) loner at school (her best friend has moved away, her brother is at college) and bullied slightly. When she meets Frank, a handsome older man who drives by her every day on her way home, she creates romantic scenarios inside her head, falling hard and fast for a guy she barely knows, even after she spends time with him. She's drawn in by the compliments and the intimacy, and even when he becomes distant or abusive, she still cares about him and wants him to go back to the way he was. Although sex is a part of this novel such scenes are appropriately non-graphic, as befits the YA audience, and while the conclusion isn't entirely satisfactory (particularly given that the reader sees the unhealthy relationship far more clearly than Andi appears to) it does feel authentic.