Customer Reviews

Playing in Traffic

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the second book I have read of Giles and like the previous one this too leaves you gasping for more. Matt is a high school senior who is not one of the popular students. Barely any one notices him, except his two similar personality friends Jeremy and Ken. Then one day the school slut and goth girl Skye begins to notices him and want him as her boyfriend/lover. They both keep their affair a secret for different reasons which is eventually layed out as the book progresses. As you start in on the first few pages you get curious to Skye motives, is she setting him up for a big joke to the rest of the school in a school dance party or is it possible she may really like him. This book will have you speed reading to see what happens next. As with her last book I did not like how it ended and here she continues the trend of leaving you the reader hanging. When you read the book you will see why I have said this. With that in mind though, the characters are well written and their thoughts are truely believable that these could be teenagers we the audience know. Great read. Get ready for a banger ending.

I devoured "Playing in Traffic" in one sitting. I enjoyed it just as much if not more than Gail Giles' previous release, "Dead Girls Don't Write Letters." Once again, Giles has written a novel about the relationships of teenagers and their families which is thought-provoking without being preachy.

What happens when the bad girl goes for the good boy? The girl is Skye, whose reputation has been sullied over the years in high school; the boy is Matt, who thinks he is invisible to everyone but Katy, his likeable, quirky younger sister. They attend the same high school but never speak - until she starts seeking him out.

When Skye begins leaving notes for Matt to meet her privately, he can't resist. When she demands that their relationship stay a secret, he can't protest. When her requests turn sinister, he can't pull away.

This short but sweet book is a page-turner. If you enjoy other psychological teen thrillers such as Amadine by Adele Griffin and Give a Boy a Gun by Todd Strasser, you will want to read Playing in Traffic.

Gail Giles impressed me with Shattering Glass, and I was hoping for something like that with Playing in Traffic. Even though this book didn't wow me as much as Shattering Glass, it kept me enthralled and waiting for the next event.

Most interesting in the book is not the "dangerous" relationship between main character Matt and Goth-girl Skye, but rather it's the bond between Matt as a brother and his younger sitster Katy (who he finds out is only his half sister). When Katy discovers the truth and that Matt knew all along, the emotion Giles has built leaves an emptiness in the pit of your stomach.

Another element that deserves applause is her credible, thrilling, and close to over-the-top ending. Definitely worth the read.

Shy and vulnerable, 17-year-old Matt Lathrop, who does everything to be inconspicuous, suddenly becomes the romantic object of Skye Colby, a sensuous, multi-pierced, multi-tattooed Goth girl, only to discover that her intentions are . . . deadly. (H) (RR) Impossible to put down! And what an ending!

I love this book. A kind of dangerous kooky girl stalks a boy who wants to be low-key and pass under the social radar at school, but she turns him on. And then her sick plan to use him unfolds in shocking pieces. I don't who but Gail Giles could write a simple book like this with so much. . . well, truth. i mean, it feels real, even though it so out there. well done!

This book is a little odd, but the ending is the best ending ever. It is so simple, it'll blow your mind away. But it is also emotional, which also blows your mind away.

Well, okay, maybe not-- book burning is a Very Bad Thing. But so is this book. To call the book vile is to slander everything else you think of as vile. The author picks an easy target to vilify-- a tempting bit of Goth girlhood-- and uses her to show the evil that women do. It's like those old movies they showed in Health Class 30 years ago, where the drunk pregnant girl with an STD bends over to pick up her cigarettes while driving and crashes her car. Boogah, boogah. I wouldn't call the author a simpleton-- she can write well enough, but the book is written at the black and white level, and children reading it will either be alarmed, scared, or laugh it off as the rubbish it is. I wouldn't give it to any of my four children, and good parents and teachers everywhere should follow my lead.

I don't really know how to explain this book. Weird, of course. Mind-boggling. You remember the characters and what happens to them for months before they eventually dissipate in your busy brain.
The narrator is Matt, a shy, unnoticed, invisible guy at school. One day Skye, the goth-rebel girl of the school, comes up to him and talks to him. Matt can't believe it. Probably the most-talked about girl in the school is actualy talking to him and asking to meet him in the park in the late hours of the night. Who wouldn't be surprised?
It's all downhill from there. Not the story, but what happens. Matt's life is thrown into a weird state. Skye is fun-loving and goofy at some times, hating, emotional, etc. Matt can't figure her out, and yet through all of these times, he sticks with her, buying her stories of her family tragedies.
But soon things get over the top. I'll just let you read the book and see what happens. But I will warn you: the ending...just don't be prepared for the normal happy-go-lucky ending in most books.
That is all I will say for now.