Dani Webster had played The Game with her sister, Kelly, for as long as she could remember, but now it is a hazy memory as Dani looks up from the floor of the isolation room at Riverwood Clinic. She remember the vodka and pills.
Slowly Dani emerges from the painful effects of substance abuse, and begins to adapt to life at Riverwood, a psychiatric treatment facility for teens with problems. Teens like her roomate, Scratch, an admitted self-mutilator. Or Scratch's friend, Kevin, whose family can't accept his homosexuality.
As she recovers from her physical trauma, Dani must confront a deeper emotional trauma. There's the cool aloofness of her mother. Her father's abusive perfectionism. Kelly's refusal to answer her letters. Fragmented memories of the last Game. She can't fit all of the pieces together.
The Game is an extraordinary story of betrayal, anger, guilt, confusion and dread and their brutal effects on the mind. It is also a tribute to the healing effects of compassion and friendship, and to the strength we can summon, even in our weakest moments.

Fouteen-year-old Dani Webster has just been admitted to a clinic in New York for detox. There readers meet Thurber, Dani's doctor; deeply troubled Scratch, her obsessive, self-mutilating roommate who never has visitors but welcomes Dani's friendship; and homosexual Kevin, a healthy teen rejected by his religious parents who have tried to reprogram his sexual orientation. Strong, dynamic characters also inhabit the supporting cast of Riverwood Clinic other patients, nurses, and relatives. The focus, however, is on Dani. Why does she attempt suicide? Why does her younger sister, Kelly, not write back? Why have her parents separated? Why is her father barred from visiting? Answers unfold through individual and group therapy sessions as Thurber and Dani's fellow patients gently encourage her to confront and reveal details of the secret game she played with Kelly. This game initially appears as a childhood story involving cinnamon sticks and fictional forces of good and evil but eventually turns into a psychological struggle in a dysfunctional family wrought with physical abuse, denial, and emotional turmoil. The complexities of Dani's situation unravel in a multifaceted, coherent narrative that includes letters, transcripts of therapy sessions, and memory flashbacks. Toten's prose, ripe with pop culture references, crisp dialogue, and diverse, fragmentary formats, relates a compelling tale of courage, responsibility, and recovery. VOYA CODES: 4Q 4P M J S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Broad general YA appeal; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2001, Red Deer Press, 208p,

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• Teen & Young Adult
  
  
  • Literature & Fiction
    
    
    • Social & Family Issues
      • Drugs & Alcohol Abuse