Drop

by Lisa Papademetriou

DON'T WE ALL harbor the secret wish that we won't have to work for it? That luck-be it a spin of the wheel, a hop of the dice, the right card at the right moment-might just choose to favor us, whether we deserve it or not? That universal desire, along with many others, is played out in the lives of three teens who hope to beat the house, and control their futures. Come meet:
Sanjay, who wants to be much more than the dutiful, hardworking immigrant's son
Kat, who wants enough cash to run as far as she can, from her past and who she's afraid she might become
Jerrica, who thinks she can foresee the cards, and maybe make them be what she needs them to be.
Each is irresistibly drawn to gambling's alluring flirt, and to entanglements with each other, and within themselves. Themes of obsession and other risky business fuel the pages of this fast-moving, provocative tale. "From the Hardcover edition."

Genres: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction

ebook

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Bestselling author Lisa Papademetriou is the author of the 'Confectionately Yours' series, 'Middle School: Big, Fat Liar' and 'Homeroom Diaries' (both with James Patterson), and many other novels for middle grade and young adult readers. Her books have appeared on the Bank Street Best Books of the Year list, the NYPL Books for the Teen Age, and the Texas Lone Star Reading List, among others. A former editor, Lisa has worked for Scholastic, HarperCollins, and DisneyPress, and holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. HarperCollins will publish her next novel, 'A Tale of Highly Unusual Magic', in October 2015.

Reviews

[LeeAnn]

This book is a quick read, but there's a lot in it. It's a coming of age, oddball/misfits friendship novel, cloaked as a heist story. Like Ocean's 11 except with teens (with issues, duh).
Of course, it isn't really that simple. Each of the 3 main characters have some deep issues, which are dealt with throughout the story (mostly), and their personality quirks make them quite the misfit group (friends isn't really the right word).
p 5 - "Too much light pollution to see anything at night."
p 19 - "The interesting thing about black holes..."
p 32 - "Beyond probability"
p 34 - "Perception is everything."
p 49 - "Synchronicity"
The real theme of the novel is taking risks. Kat sums it up on pg 166 - "But everything's a risk."

[Mason Frey]

Drop
By: Lisa Papademetriou

This book takes place in Las Vegas, present time. The main characters are Sanjay, a teenager addicted to gambling and short on money; Jerrica, a teenage girl who is figuring out how to predict cards but doesn't want the money; and Kat, Sanjay's girlfriend.
In this book Sanjay is gambling his father's store money away and needs a way to get it back. Sanjay recruits Jerrica to help him win the money back because she can sometimes predict what card will come up next, giving her an advantage. When Sanjay is spotted by security as an advantaged player, he isn't allowed to play in the casinos anymore. They decide that Jerrica can't play by herself so they ask Kat to take Sanjay's place. They are making a lot of money and things are going smoothly until they are mugged of almost everything they had saved. Sanjay needs to find a way to pay back all the money he borrowed from his dad's store.
I liked this book because it had a lot of suspense and a little bit of mystery. I like the writer's style because you get to see what is happening from more than one point of view and you're never wondering what happened. In this book I actually felt like I was sitting in a casino watching the roulette wheel spin and the little white ball bounce around on the numbers. I recommend this book to anyone who likes to play cards or to anyone who just likes a good book.

[Jordan Funke]

This book will only appeal to a small group of people, but I think those folks will like it. I will recommend it to teens interested in gambling or in math probability. I worry though that people who are interested in one and not at all in the other might not stick it out. it's hard to say what made this book just okay, but I think one problem is that the omniscient narrator switches from the thoughts of one person to another very quickly and with little transition or indication of who you are now reading about. That could be confusing to weaker readers, even though the topic of teen gambling might appeal to them.

[Annie]

Teenaged gambling, psychic card reading, etc. Not the best characters I've read: not always believable and changes of heart that seemed unmotivated. Hard to get interested in the book.

[Dawn]

This doesn't even deserve one star... Clunky, poorly written tale about teens who gamble and one girl who can "sense" what the next card will be and tries to use it to her advantage.

[Matthew Bohorquez]

I have just started on page 1.

[Kelsey]

Too short, really. The characters were kind of unlikeable.

[Sabrina]

Really great suspense story! About three kids trying to get by by gambling...only problem was that it had an abrupt ending....

[Theresa]

This book would probably be more interesting to people who enjoy gambling.

[Tulsi]

Great idea, brings out emotions in a new, twistedly amazing way.

[Sydney]

had the potential to be very deep, but focused on the wrong parts of the story. still a somewhat decent plotline.

[Rena]

This little book had to many main characters point-of-view and the ending was okay.

[Anna Lee]

This was a disappointing ending, but a good idea for a story.