Week Fourteen Book Fourteen--Going Too Far

This week I read Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols. I was told in advance that it was not about what its title suggests...but I think it is. Let me explain.

The book is about a girl, Meg, who is on the verge of destruction. After struggling through her middle school and early high school years with leukemia, she is now cancer-free but not ghost-free. To cope with the nightmares of her past, she constantly dyes her hair radical colors, sleeps around with random guys, and anxiously awaits when she'll leave her small town. But she takes it too far when she trespasses on a forbidden railroad bridge and finds herself spending Spring Break job-shadowing local police officer John After. Here she must watch him make traffic stops, break up bar fights, and even intercept robberies and drug deals.

When Meg learns that Officer After has an identity she completely overlooked, she starts to see him and his hometown philosophy in a whole new way. She even starts to fall for him...in a way different than all her past flings. And she starts dealing with the demons of her past that won't seem to let go.

This was a quick read, but my problem is that I don't really sympathize with Meg. I'm so appalled and disappointed by her lifestyle and mindset that I don't want her to end up dating Officer John. Just when they start to connect, she goes crazy and ruins it and he ends up running after her. And for a realistic novel, I didn't find it very believable. An officer and "criminal" dating during/after a court-assigned project? As an educator, I find this too inappropriate to appreciate.

And I was told that this book was about "going too far" in the criminal sense or in moving away from a small town. And it was, but it was DEFINITELY about the other "going too far," too. C'mon, it's all Meg thinks about with guys.

I loved the secondary characters, though, like Tiffany, Brian, Officer Leroy, and Lois. But a book isn't supposed to make you focus more on the secondary characters than the primary ones, right?

I'd give it two out of five stars. A quick read but not much depth or reality.