THE LAST CHANCE TEXACO
Brent Hartinger
HarperTempest
Fiction
ISBN: 0060509120
240 pages

• Read an Excerpt

Brent Hartinger's first novel, THE GEOGRAPHY CLUB, was about a boy who wanted nothing more than to belong to a supportive group. The central character of Hartinger's second novel, THE LAST CHANCE TEXACO, tries equally hard to push away anyone who tries to get too close to her.

Ever since her parents died in a car crash, Lucy has spent her life bouncing from foster home to group home and back again. Plagued by behavior problems and an addiction to OxyContin, Lucy is placed at Kindle House, a group home nicknamed "The Last Chance Texaco" because it's the last stop before Rabbit Island, the high-security facility where nobody wants to end up. Lucy's first-person narrative reveals both her resentment at being moved to yet another group home and her fear of ending up at Rabbit Island.

Almost as soon as Lucy arrives at Kindle House, she realizes that this place is different from the countless group homes she has lived in before. Sure, there are the same power struggles, meltdowns and fights, but the counselors, especially Leon, who's a former group home kid himself, seem to genuinely care about the kids. They even voluntarily prepare and eat a home-cooked Thanksgiving meal at Kindle House instead of enjoying a day off.

In this supportive environment, Lucy finds herself caught between starting to care about the counselors and the other kids and trying to remain aloof from them. When someone seems to be trying to sabotage Lucy, and Kindle House itself, Lucy discovers that she might just care about this place --- and her new "family" --- more than she ever thought possible.

THE LAST CHANCE TEXACO is a sympathetic portrayal of the troubled, often misunderstood kids who end up in group homes. All these young people --- and many of their mentors --- are deeper and more complex than they appear at first glance. The book may try to do too much --- it's simultaneously a problem novel, a mystery and a romance --- but for the most part, it lives up to its ambitions. The romance between prepster Nate and wrong-side-of-the-tracks Lucy doesn't quite ring true. Would he really date Lucy despite the opinion of his popular friends?

Nevertheless, Lucy's dramatic transformation from the tough girl with a chip on her shoulder to a person who can love and be loved is reason enough to enjoy this well-written novel.

   --- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

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