"Sara" by Greg Herren

I've read and enjoyed a number of Greg Herren's novels, mostly his Chanse McLeod and Scotty Bradley mysteries (and some of his pseudonymous ones), but this is the first of his YA novels I've tried.  I really enjoyed it because he did such a masterful job of setting up my expectations, and then knocking them completely apart.

Having not read the description of the book, I was prepared for it to be a typical story about the changes to a high school's social dynamic caused when one of the popular jocks comes out of the closet over the summer.

And that was basically how the book started.  "Sara" seemed to be  a fairly typical coming out story about Tony, a high school football player, and his best friend Glenn, the one who comes out of the closet after he starts dating a lifeguard over the summer.  It has the requisite bullying by some of the less evolved, and more religious jocks (and of course, some people turn out to be supportive).

All in all, fairly standard.  Then Sara, a mysterious stranger, comes into the picture and immediately sets her sights on Glenn.

Okay, so at this point it looked like the book was going to turn out to be a little more like "Fatal Attraction," and Sara was going to try out to be someone who wouldn't take no for an answer, despite Glenn's being gay.  Maybe she was going to be a psycho that Tony would have to save Glenn from, and boom, Glenn and Tony would be together happily ever after.

But that wasn't where the story was going either.

Glenn seems just a smitten with Sara, which is of course surprising, and somewhat disturbing to his friends, because he's just come out.  Then the people who were bullying Glenn start dying.  And the book takes a supernatural turn.

Just who or what is Sara really?  That is the question that Tony has to answer before Sara decides he's a threat to Glenn, too.

I really enjoyed all the twists and turns, and constantly being surprised when Herren would suddenly mix things up and throw in some huge surprises.  I was also not prepared for the ending to be as dark as it was.  Usually these types of books have much happier endings, and while this one was appropriate for a horror/mystery type novel, it was a surprise for a YA one.

The characters were well written, and I think Herren was especially adept with Tony's desire to be supportive for Glenn, while still being taken aback by his best friend's sexuality (and what it could imply about his sexuality as well).  While Tony clearly loves Glenn like a brother, this new side of Glenn does pose a problem for him, one that he feels very guilty about.

My one complaint about "Sara" is that Herren tips his hand about which character Tony will end up dating (I won't give it away here).  When the final confrontation happened, it was fairly clear which love interest would survive (and therefore, which one would die).  But there were enough surprises left in that final confrontation that I didn't mind.

I'm looking forward to reading some of Herren's other YA novels in the future (and I hope there is more coming up in his other series as well).