Fireball (Bright Young Things)

In this tense coming of age novel, the story opens at the end of an intensely hot summer in Vancouver as Chris, a complex and misunderstood youth, has just driven a stolen police car through a road block and over a cliff to his death. Unraveling the events that lead to such a death, the novel traces the lives of four teenagers and the months that will come to define their future. Hailed as heroes for saving a drowning woman, boys soon attract unwanted attention as minor celebrities and, as the weeks go by, the public admiration is replaced with envy—and then harassment—until the pressure builds to the final fiery climax. Darkly comic and cinematic in tone, this dramatic debut novel captures the spirit of spent youth.