Trust Falls: The Wessex Papers, Vol. 1 [Paperback]

Daniel Parker (Author)

Book Description

Series: Wessex Papers | Publication Date: May 28, 2002

Hey man,

This place is crazy. They (I'm not exactly sure who "they" are, but that oaf of a dorm counselor I told you about is at the top of the list for sure) actually planted chewing tobacco in some kid's bag so that they could expel him. And I thought all I'd have to put up with this year was a bunch of spoiled brats with platinum cards.

James, an evil stench is wafting through the air here at Wessex Academy, and it smells just like a conspiracy.

Gotta go,

Fred

Alumni brat Sunday Winthrop and new student Fred Bushmill's pranks lead to their uncovering a sinister blackmail ring -- one that will stop at nothing to incriminate one of their friends

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The first of The Wessex Papers trilogy starts off like a great beach read, full of arch observations by and about its protagonists, overprivileged teens at a highfalutin boarding school called Wessex Academy. Most of the main characters belong to the elite clique known as ABs, or Alumni Brats. Sunday and Allison show up to the headmaster's welcoming party wearing horrors the same Lily Pulitzer dress; once-preppy Hobson has come down with "I'm-From-The-Hood Syndrome" ("His baggy pants hung low. He flashed signs for nonexistent gangs. His friends became his `dawgs' "); Noah, the smart-mouthed slacker, dreams up a plan for a "guerilla barbershop quartet" to be called The Schwa Sound ("You know, after that little upside-down E that dictionaries use"). But wit quickly gives way to sophomoric plotting. The overextended story line involves conspiracies among corrupt faculty members; illicit sex (the new English teacher seduces Noah); and tedious roommate squabbles and romantic tiffs. In a bizarre closing twist, a non-AB and Sunday (who team up to "take the BS out of boarding school") peek through the headmaster's window late one night and spy him and a student watching a porn movie starring Noah. The story resembles a drifting soap opera, complete with dangling plot lines, and readers are not likely to tune in to the next installments. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Reviewed with other titles in the Wessex Papers series.

Gr. 8-12. Unlike many paperback teen series titles that feature a self-contained story in each volume, the Wessex Papers series uses three volumes to tell one long, involved mystery. The first volume, Trust Falls, uses a lot of pages to introduce the main characters, including Sunday Winthrop (old-money rebel) and Fred Wright (middle-class rebel), and the complex social world of the ultrasnobbish Wessex Academy. Things pick up in Fallout, in which Sunday and Fred reveal their feelings for one another and discover an extortion scheme that reaches to the upper levels of the school administration. In the final volume, Sunday and Fred unmask the blackmailers and make their school more fair and just. Of course, most mysteries are fewer than 750 pages, and the story gets rather messy and convoluted in places. Yet many young readers will find a thrill in the vicarious plunge into the world of Wessex Academy, where the students indulge in all sorts of teenage vices (including some nonexplicit sex and drug and alcohol use) and sneak around the campus at night in their underwear and J. Crew pajamas. Todd Morning
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 13 and up
  
• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: HarperTeen (May 28, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006440806X
• ISBN-13: 978-0064408066
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,146,566 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Weird, Yet Satisfying, July 14, 2002

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Trust Falls: The Wessex Papers, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

This is a highly original story-not others like i that I know of. It starts like a regular teenage story...but SO not boring...and then you feel like you are in a speeding crate in a mine. It's a smooth story--you don't feel like a snail sludging along. It's about different points of view-which ends of tying a knot and "ending" together. What I mean about "ending" is that it leaves you in suspense so you MUST read the next one. It's weird, too. You would never guess something would happen, yet it fits. (You'll have to read this book to find out what happens- please do!) It's a well written YA novel and give it 5 stars! It's an enjoyable story about an outcast, a toubled yet popular clique, and a whole bunch of loving characters-you feel like you know them. What I also loved was that sometimes, instead of a regular paragraph, it's letters or feelings or diary pages...from different characters. Like "Sunday Winthrop's Speech As Typed(shred when done)". Or "Fred Wright's Dartboard."This book is not only hilarious, but fast pacing and hypnotic-you can't put it down! So I urge you to READ THIS BOOK!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ha Ha Ha Ha ho ho ho ha ha ha, June 5, 2002

By 

Katie Denmark (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trust Falls: The Wessex Papers, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

THIS BOOK ROCKED!

Okay...so here's the thing...I'm not really so into reading normally...i mean, i don't *dislike* reading...i just don't generally get excited all that excited about books....

This book was so good I actually got in trouble for reading it during class (which all my friends thought was really funny by the way)

It is really laugh out-loud pants-peeingly funny and....you know how some "teen" books are really unrealistic...like the characters don't talk like how real people our age talk.....they just sound like what some adult things teens talk like? well this book is not like that....it actually sounds like how people I know talk (well, actually not all that much like people iknow because these people are funnier/weirder/crazier than people I know.....but whatever..you know what i mean)

after I read this book i gave it to my best friend who's sort of readingly-snobby (like she gets really excited about shakespere and crap) and i made her read it and she was all prepared to be all "teen book! eeew!" but she actually really loved it and wants me to lend her the other two...

READ THESE BOOKS!

okay.

bye.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An intersesting trilogy., August 12, 2002

By 

Lauren (Windsor, Ont. (Can.)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trust Falls: The Wessex Papers, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

This novel is the first of three in an interesting trilogy about athe lies and cheating that is going on in Wessex private school. It includes witty excerpts written by the characters in the characters in the book.

Fred Wright has just transferred to Wessex High School for a post grad. year that will hopefully boost up his low grade. This basketball star notices something strange about the people here; the elite children of the alumnis seem to get away with everything, and are divided from the rest of the students of the school. The "alumni brats", as the kids are called include Winnie, a cheating slime out for money, Noah, a strange kid with a strange sense of humor, Sunday, a pretty girl who seems to want to get away from it all, Hobson, a guy who acts like guy from the 'hood, Alison, a prissy spoiled girl who always plays by the rules and Mackenzie, a weird girl who loves astrology and tarot reeadings. After beginning school, he feels somthing fishy is goinf on, especially after someone plants tobacco in a kids bag to get him expelled. With the help of Sunday, he plans wreak havoc and uncover the scandal thats tearing through the school.