The Gatekeepers - Hardcover

Gr 10 Up—North Shore is a seemingly perfect Illinois town; its motto is "We breed excellence." But underneath the porcelain exterior, there are large cracks in the foundation. The suicide rate for teens is one of the highest in the nation, and each kid is under intense pressure to be the absolute best at academics, sports, and extracurricular activities. To ease the tension, many students turn to partying and opioid abuse, which are all too easy to support using their absent millionaire parents' bars and medicine cabinets. New girl Simone is unsettled by the compulsory perfection. She quickly finds solace in new friends. Her rival is Mallory, who is dating the most popular guy in school—until he breaks up with her for Simone. But tragedy rears its ugly head when a beloved student commits suicide, and that event is quickly followed by another. Simone and Mallory are too shattered to be rivals. They create the Gatekeepers Club with the intent to integrate a viable support system into the school to prevent these suicides. A diverse group of teens come together to try to create a positive future. The first half of this best-selling author's YA fiction debut is slow. There is a large cast of characters and alternating perspectives. But as the characters gravitate toward one another, cohesion in the narrative begins to form. This is an adequate read; however, it sometimes lacks the gravitas the subject matter deserves through overuse of inauthentic teen vernacular and underdeveloped characters. VERDICT Recommended as an additional purchase, especially for libraries looking to expand their mental health collections.—Melanie Leivers, Palm Beach Country Library System, FL