Title: Dangerously Close
Author: Sandra Glover
Release Date: 3rd April 2008
Publisher: Anderson Press
When Dee's traumatised family start a new life, she is relieved to find two uncomplicated fun-loving friends. But with the onset of problems for one, and a controlling boyfriend influencing the other, Dee notices frightening parallels with her own troubles. Is she seeing things clearly, though?
And will her efforts to help mean revealing family secrets? Secrets they so desperately want to keep hidden.
Three friends, Dee, Hazel and Abbie are all dealing with their own problems. Dee has a past that she is trying to keep secret from her friends, Hazel is having to come to terms with her family keeping secrets from her and everyone thinks Abbie might be keeping secrets about her new boyfriend (despite talking about him ALL the time!).
I’m not sure that this book was what I was expecting. The three friends are all brilliant characters and the narrative moves fluidly through their individual family lives. I really liked the way the structure of the tales were so different, Dee’s story is revealed piece by piece and Abbie’s tale holds a surprise at the end. However, I found Hazel’s story to be a bit lacking towards the end. Although she still has to deal with what has happened to her Mum (read and find out what) and is devastated by Abbie’s selfish actions, I felt that we don’t really get to see a lot of her or her family towards the end.
The book becomes more and more gritty towards the end, so do be prepared for some unpleasantness as Dee reveals what happened to her family. Even before we find out what went on, Dee’s family are really developed characters which makes her revelation even more dramatic, although it is dealt with in a really delicate way.
The character of Abbie reminds me of Lana in And Baby Makes Two in the way that she falls head over heels in love with Tom. She puts her life completely on hold for him, even down to leaving sixth form so she can get a job and work with him in his Dad’s hotel.
The ending of the novel is really effective, with Dee reflecting on what has happened and thinking about the future. Although awful things have happened, she still has hope that things will get better and this is especially important regarding her family.
Overall, Dangerously Close is a really good novel. The characters are all really interesting, dealing with their own problems and the tale addresses some key issues for teenagers. I would recommend this novel as something quite surprising and it packs a lot into a relatively small space! It is also set locally to me – which I couldn’t help but like!
4.5/5 Full of secrets.
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