Shock Point [Hardcover]

April Henry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 16, 2006

Sixteen-year-old Cassie’s stepfather Rick is about to strike it rich with Socom, a new behavioral drug in which Rick is a big investor. But then Cassie discovers that Rick, a teen psychiatrist, has already been prescribing Socom illegally to his patients—and three teens have died.

Before she can report him, Rick has Cassie committed to Peaceful Cove, a sadistic boot camp for troubled teens in Mexico where the only way out is to graduate at age eighteen. Cassie knows she has to get out now, before more teens die from Socom. But no one has ever escaped from Peaceful Cove alive—and even if Cassie gets over the walls and survives the Mexican desert, will anyone believe her story?

A taut, psychological thriller ripped from today’s headlines, Shock Point deftly explores the cutting edge issue of behavioral drugs while taking readers on a roller coaster ride of action and suspense.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up–Cassie Streng, 16, knows that her psychiatrist stepfather, Rick, prescribed an experimental drug for his teenage patients, three of whom have committed suicide. Before she can gather evidence, however, she is grabbed by two men, handcuffed, locked in the back of a van, and taken to Peaceful Cove, a facility for troubled teens in Mexico. Rick has assured her mother that the place is an excellent boarding school–he maintains that he found crystal meth in Cassie's room–but she soon discovers the truth. She is trapped in a brutal prison camp, and she must make her way back to Oregon and convince someone of the danger Rick represents before anyone else dies. While the premise is a bit over the top, Cassie is a strong and sympathetic character who relies on her wits and determination from the very first page. Short chapters that show how she uncovers her stepfather's actions alternate with the story of her journey from Portland to Mexico, a nicely executed technique that keeps the plot moving and readers engaged. While the secondary characters are a little flat and the ending is a bit too neat, Henry packs her first YA novel with the quick action and suspense that will keep even reluctant readers turning the pages.–Beth Gallego, Los Angeles Public Library, North Hollywood
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 8-11. The wicked stepmother motif is altered to wicked stepfather in this contemporary chiller. Cassie, 16, has suffered a year of upheavals: her parents' divorce, her mother's remarriage^B and new pregnancy, and the discovery that her stepfather's psychiatric practice revolves around an experimental drug that may have led to the suicides of several of his teen patients. Leading off is a horrific scene of Cassie's abduction, masterminded by her stepfather, who planted crystal meth in her room and arranged for her to be taken to a juvenile "rehabilitation" center. Organization is a strong point here. In the first part, Henry effectively shuttles between Cassie's imprisonment and the discoveries that lead to it. In the second part, Cassie must free herself and obtain evidence to save other teens from the deadly drug--all but impossible tasks in the Dickensian atmosphere of the teen facility. Along with solid plotting and suspense comes a likable heroine who's a good match for the nefarious adults in her life. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Juvenile (February 16, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399243852
• ISBN-13: 978-0399243851
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,893,379 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I write mysteries and thrillers. I live in Portland, Oregon with my family.

When I was 12, I sent a short story about a six-foot tall frog who loved peanut butter to Roald Dahl, the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He took it to lunch and showed it to the editor of an international children's magazine - and she asked to publish the story! (For no money, which might have been a warning about how hard it is to make a living writing.)

My dream of writing went dormant until I was in my 30s, working at a corporate job, and started writing books on the side. Those first few years are now thankfully a blur. Now I'm very lucky to make a living doing what I love. I have written ten novels for adults and teens, with more on the way. My books have gotten starred reviews, been picked for Booksense, translated into four languages, been named to state reading lists, and short-listed for the Oregon Book Award. And Face of Betrayal, which I co-wrote with Lis Wiehl, was on the New York Times bestseller list for four weeks in 2009.

I also review YA literature and mysteries and thrillers for the Oregonian, and have written articles for both The Writer and Writers Digest.

Heart of Ice (co-written with Lis Wiehl) came out in early April. And a teen thriller, The Night She Disappeared, will be published in January 2012.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A suspenseful and riveting tale of survival and determination, March 16, 2006

By 

Teenreads.com (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shock Point (Hardcover)

When Cassie Streng comes home from school one day, she is abducted by two rough strangers. She fights them, screaming, until her mother arrives and proceeds to hand Cassie's suitcase to the men. Cassie's stepfather, Rick, tells her he's found crystal meth hidden in her room and that she will find the help she needs where she's headed. But Cassie has never used drugs and knows that Rick must have planted the meth. Unable to believe this is happening to her, she's shackled into the back of her captors' van as her parents watch.

In a flashback Cassie discovers that Rick, a psychiatrist, has been administering an experimental drug to his troubled teen patients; three of them committed suicide. When Cassie confides in her classmate, Thatcher, he hatches a plan to show Rick's incriminating records to a newspaper reporter. They must tell people the truth about the drug, and thereby prevent more deaths.

However, before the two can get an adult to listen seriously to them, Rick has arranged for Cassie to be shanghaied to Peaceful Cove, a brutal boot camp in Mexico for teenagers with behavior problems. Peaceful Cove is more like a prison than a school or a camp. Cassie's clothes and other personal belongings are taken from her. She's locked in a closet-sized room and warned that armed guards, barbed wire, and a 200-foot cliff will keep her from escaping. Cruel punishments are commonplace. And it's all legal, because her parents signed the contract.

Not only is Cassie totally cut off from the world, she must learn a million rules. She can't cross her legs when she sits. She can't wear her hair down. She can't raise her eyes. She can't talk, sit, or stand without permission. Cassie soon finds out that her incarceration is sure to last months if not years. However, if she doesn't escape and expose her stepfather's use of the experimental drug, more kids are likely to die. Cassie soon has a friend, and a plan...but how can the plan possibly work?

SHOCK POINT is a riveting tale of survival and determination, chockfull of suspense and urgency. Fair warning: once you start reading, you will find it nearly impossible to close the book until the very end.

--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon ([e-mail])

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A terrific page-turner, February 27, 2006

By 

Barbara Seranella (La Quinta, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shock Point (Hardcover)

The premise of this book intrigued me. I soon forgot that it was a book for young adults. I inhaled the story in two sittings and thought about Cassie's plight when I wasn't reading. I have two neices who will get this book for their birthdays and I highly recommend it as an adult read as well as for teens. Good writing, excellent plausibility, and not dependent on grahic scenes and language.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When "Behavior Modification" Goes Awry, March 7, 2006

By 

TeensReadToo "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shock Point (Hardcover)

When Cassie Streng is abducted by two men in a white van right in front of her own house, she can't at first figure out what's going on. When her mother comes outside and does nothing to stop the men, confusion turns to panic. When her stepfather, Dr. Rick Wheeler, enters the picture, things suddenly become clear. Rick planted drugs in Cassie's room, convinced her mother that she needed more help than they could give her to straighten her out, and is shipping her out to a school/prison in Mexico.

Cassie figures this all out in a few minutes, once she's handcuffed in the back of the van, virtually kidnapped by men who work for Peaceful Cove, and desperate to escape. She knows why this is happening, but she has no way to convince anyone that she's being held against her will for something she didn't do.

Rick Wheeler is a psychiatrist who moved his new family--wife Jackie, stepdaughter Cassie, and soon-to-be-born son away from the town of Minor to Portland. Back in their old town, Rick had a practice that specialized in helping troubled youths. You know the ones--they resist parental authority, smoke, drink, maybe do drugs or have premarital sex. They were the "bad" kids, and Dr. Wheeler used them as guinea pigs for a drug called Socom. Socom's creators billed their new drug, given as an injection, as a breakthrough in adolescent behavior modification. It might be, too, except for the deadly side effects that seem to take place in some of the youths, ending in their deaths.

Cassie found out about all of this when she snooped through her stepfather's home files. She was concerned enough, especially since Rick keeps mentioning to her mother that she herself should be put on Socom, to do some investigating of her own. When she learns that three former students of her old school in Minor died after being on the drug, she enlists the help of her new classmate, Thatcher Hedrick, and the two devise a plan to bring Rick and his deceptions to light with the aid of a Portland newspaper columnist.

Before they can do that, however, Cassie is kidnapped, with no way of letting Thatcher--or anyone else--know that Rick is behind the plot that's taken her out of the country. Now she's far away from home in Mexico, and although she's making some new contacts and friends there, she's worried about what's happening back in Portland.

SHOCK POINT is a great story, full of action, adventure, and mystery. The plot is very believable, especially in this day and age where drugs seem to be the choice of so many people to cure their ills. As Cassie works from Mexico to bring down Rick and the company that produces Socom, Thatcher works from Portland to rescue Cassie and protect the innocents who are still taking the drug--some without their consent.

A highly recommend thriller for both teens and adults!