Girl on the Other Side

December 7, 2009
Kerbel's moving if fairly predictable novel opens with one distraught girl hearing another girl crying in a neighboring bathroom stall at school. The narrative then jumps back to flesh out each girl's life. Popular Tabby is bitter about her wealthy parents' emotional remoteness and lack of attention; tormented outcast Lora tries to keep her grades up (“A scholarship is going to be my one-way ticket out of this abyss”) while caring for her siblings and invalid mother. When Tabby learns that her father may be involved in shady activity at work, she rats her parents out in a moment of anger, resulting in her father's arrest. Tabby is surprised by the ramifications of her actions, including her own ostracism, which is odd considering she knows her popularity rested on her family's status. When the girls meet in the bathroom, Lora is shocked to find “head piranha” Tabby being kind to her, but it's not until a fire at Tabby's house that the girls truly connect, a conclusion that feels both foregone and anticlimactic. Still, Kerbel's depictions of each girl's very different brands of personal pain are stirring. Ages 12–up.