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Chasing a Thrill
On her morning run, seventeen year old Katie discovers a frozen body lying on the snowy forest trail. The story goes back three months to trace the events leading up to the tragedy as seen through the eyes of:
Mike, the import car fanatic who worships his older brother, Frankie, a hotshot graduate who’s gone East and developed big spending habits fuelled by poker winnings.
Jay, the budding musician whose father wants him to be an NHL player even though he hates hockey.
Kim, the math whiz and talented artist whose mother recently died and left her alone with a cold, abusive father who spends most nights at the casino.
Nick, forced to be a parent to his two kid sisters while his single mom goes off for days at a time and drowns herself in booze .
Lured by the thrill of gambling, their lives spiral out of control until events come to a head in a gripping final showdown. Along the way they’ll learn about love, heroism, sacrifice and failure, but someone pays the ultimate price and dies on the snowy forest track.
Set in a Canadian prairie city, this story explores the complexity of family conflict and its impact on troubled teens searching for love, acceptance and identity
Mike, the import car fanatic who worships his older brother, Frankie, a hotshot graduate who’s gone East and developed big spending habits fuelled by poker winnings.
Jay, the budding musician whose father wants him to be an NHL player even though he hates hockey.
Kim, the math whiz and talented artist whose mother recently died and left her alone with a cold, abusive father who spends most nights at the casino.
Nick, forced to be a parent to his two kid sisters while his single mom goes off for days at a time and drowns herself in booze .
Lured by the thrill of gambling, their lives spiral out of control until events come to a head in a gripping final showdown. Along the way they’ll learn about love, heroism, sacrifice and failure, but someone pays the ultimate price and dies on the snowy forest track.
Set in a Canadian prairie city, this story explores the complexity of family conflict and its impact on troubled teens searching for love, acceptance and identity
- GenresYoung Adult
2014 pages, Paperback
First published December 3, 2013
About the author
Marjorie DeLuca
12 books93 followersMarjorie DeLuca spent her childhood in the ancient cathedral city of Durham in North-Eastern England. She attended the University of London, became a teacher, and then immigrated to Canada. There she also studied writing under her mentor, Pulitzer Prize winning author, Carol Shields. She writes in many genres, including historical, suspense and YA sci-fi. She also writes for screen and TV..
Also writes as M.M. DeLuca.
Also writes as M.M. DeLuca.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 9, 2014
Although this is a book for young adults and not a genre I normally read, I immediately fell under the spell of this story of a group of senior high school kids who lost control over their destiny during their final school year. Within a short period of a few months, an unexpected, dangerous reality was taking over their dreams and aspirations in ways they could not have seen coming.
Kim, Katie, Nick, Jay and Mike hardly knew each other in classes. Each one of them harbored family situations which they all tried to hide in their different ways. What the outside world saw was confident young people making good grades over all. Some were regarded as arrogant party animals, and others were like wallflowers adorning the classrooms in their quiet, shadowy ways. But they all got away with the front they presented to the world, until they discovered the common goal and acted upon it with traumatic results.
All of them had one talent and that was for maths. Some were brilliant and others mediocre, but all of them found a way of using it for purposes other than academic achievements. The common goal was money.
Between them the young people represented the results of abusive parents, driven by drug- and/or alcohol addiction, divorce, neglect, insecurity, and relationship failures, so typical of the modern collective psyche of our society, which confronts the children of the failed generations. Hope and enthusiasm were all they had to negotiate a way out of it all for themselves. And they made it! But not before someone was dead and all of them injured in some or other form.
This is a fast-moving, suspenseful drama, keeping the reader riveted to the story from beginning to end. It highlights all aspects of parenting and responsibilities towards the children and how the parents' actions impact on the lives of the youngsters. On another level it educates a young generation on the consequences of choices they make themselves and the ripple effect it has on all the people around them. without being preachy. In fact, it is done masterfully. It is an emotionally-driven tale that captures the reader in every way possible. The author has the ability to read the reader's mind and emotions. She utilizes her skill of in-depth observation of human interaction to pull this story off successfully. I was sad when it ended. A brilliant novel. Although I did not identify with any of the characters, I loved them all and did not want them to go. But I walk away with a feeling of hope and happiness. I know they've got what it takes and will make it.
The Oak Park High School student film, All In produced by film maker, James McLellan, is based on this novel.
Anyone, of all ages, can read it. It is worth the time.
Kim, Katie, Nick, Jay and Mike hardly knew each other in classes. Each one of them harbored family situations which they all tried to hide in their different ways. What the outside world saw was confident young people making good grades over all. Some were regarded as arrogant party animals, and others were like wallflowers adorning the classrooms in their quiet, shadowy ways. But they all got away with the front they presented to the world, until they discovered the common goal and acted upon it with traumatic results.
All of them had one talent and that was for maths. Some were brilliant and others mediocre, but all of them found a way of using it for purposes other than academic achievements. The common goal was money.
Between them the young people represented the results of abusive parents, driven by drug- and/or alcohol addiction, divorce, neglect, insecurity, and relationship failures, so typical of the modern collective psyche of our society, which confronts the children of the failed generations. Hope and enthusiasm were all they had to negotiate a way out of it all for themselves. And they made it! But not before someone was dead and all of them injured in some or other form.
This is a fast-moving, suspenseful drama, keeping the reader riveted to the story from beginning to end. It highlights all aspects of parenting and responsibilities towards the children and how the parents' actions impact on the lives of the youngsters. On another level it educates a young generation on the consequences of choices they make themselves and the ripple effect it has on all the people around them. without being preachy. In fact, it is done masterfully. It is an emotionally-driven tale that captures the reader in every way possible. The author has the ability to read the reader's mind and emotions. She utilizes her skill of in-depth observation of human interaction to pull this story off successfully. I was sad when it ended. A brilliant novel. Although I did not identify with any of the characters, I loved them all and did not want them to go. But I walk away with a feeling of hope and happiness. I know they've got what it takes and will make it.
The Oak Park High School student film, All In produced by film maker, James McLellan, is based on this novel.
Anyone, of all ages, can read it. It is worth the time.
February 1, 2014
Busted Out is the story of three months of the lives of five Canadian high schoolers in the autumn and early winter. There's Nick, the responsible big brother of his baby sisters, struggling to hold home and family together with an absent father and an alcoholic mother; there's Jay, the reluctant ice skater, resentfully desperate to please his authoritarian father; there's Kim, whose mother recently died of cancer, trying to escape her abusive father; there's car fanatic Mike, staunchly loyal to his Italian family; and younger sister, Katy, a pretty popular girl who's main interest is running and sports.
The book starts with a dramatic finding in the woods, when Katie discovers a frozen body. The rest of the book tells the events leading up to this discovery. As the story unfolds, all their lives become more closely connected: the common factor being poker. Although it affects them in very different ways, no character is left unscathed.
Marjorie DeLuca is a confident writer, who holds her readers in suspense; her writing gets gradually more compelling, leading to the dramatic conclusion. Pace is well maintained. Characterisation is mostly clear and believable, and her characters are sympathetic. Dialogue, similarly, is clear and well written, and each character has their own distinctive 'voice.'
The main problem with this book was it is in need of a good edit! There were a number of minor inconsistencies, as well as some formatting errors that meant random words or characters were put in bold for no apparent reason. Mostly, though, it was the general language that just needed a good fine tuning. Slightly awkward phrases, or repeated words were relatively common.
As well as that, there were some practical inconsistencies with events which I presume DeLuca wasn't familiar with. There is a scene towards the end with a crashed car; if the gasoline was over the road as she described, then the car wouldn't have gone up in flames slowly, it would have exploded straight away with no time for Jay acting the hero. Along similar lines, Nick's sisters were particularly unbelievable, and I wonder if DeLuca has had much experience with small children.
Overall, it was an enjoyable and pacey, although I was a little disappointed (and felt a bit cheated!) with the ending.
Thank you Marjorie - I won this in a Good reads giveaway - and keep on writing!
The book starts with a dramatic finding in the woods, when Katie discovers a frozen body. The rest of the book tells the events leading up to this discovery. As the story unfolds, all their lives become more closely connected: the common factor being poker. Although it affects them in very different ways, no character is left unscathed.
Marjorie DeLuca is a confident writer, who holds her readers in suspense; her writing gets gradually more compelling, leading to the dramatic conclusion. Pace is well maintained. Characterisation is mostly clear and believable, and her characters are sympathetic. Dialogue, similarly, is clear and well written, and each character has their own distinctive 'voice.'
The main problem with this book was it is in need of a good edit! There were a number of minor inconsistencies, as well as some formatting errors that meant random words or characters were put in bold for no apparent reason. Mostly, though, it was the general language that just needed a good fine tuning. Slightly awkward phrases, or repeated words were relatively common.
As well as that, there were some practical inconsistencies with events which I presume DeLuca wasn't familiar with. There is a scene towards the end with a crashed car; if the gasoline was over the road as she described, then the car wouldn't have gone up in flames slowly, it would have exploded straight away with no time for Jay acting the hero. Along similar lines, Nick's sisters were particularly unbelievable, and I wonder if DeLuca has had much experience with small children.
Overall, it was an enjoyable and pacey, although I was a little disappointed (and felt a bit cheated!) with the ending.
Thank you Marjorie - I won this in a Good reads giveaway - and keep on writing!
January 8, 2014
I was given this book in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you very much Marjorie :)
Now, where do I start?
I loved the beginning of the book, it was a really promising beginning to a great mystery.
Then 6 POV's came along, which, in my opinion, are 3 or 4 too many, usually. For the first part of the book, this made many of the characters a bit flat and untouchable.
As their lives meshed more and more throughout the plot, however, the characters got more fleshed out and more interesting and easier to relate to.
After a slow middle part of the book, the plot did pick up again, so at the end of the book I was back to where I was, thoughtwise, at the beginning. I liked the book.
Whilst I love the story overall and all the ideas brought into it, I found the plot moved on a bit too fast in many of the important places and dragged along in others. Alltogether it did prove quite an easy, enjoyable read, though.
Thank you very much Marjorie :)
Now, where do I start?
I loved the beginning of the book, it was a really promising beginning to a great mystery.
Then 6 POV's came along, which, in my opinion, are 3 or 4 too many, usually. For the first part of the book, this made many of the characters a bit flat and untouchable.
As their lives meshed more and more throughout the plot, however, the characters got more fleshed out and more interesting and easier to relate to.
After a slow middle part of the book, the plot did pick up again, so at the end of the book I was back to where I was, thoughtwise, at the beginning. I liked the book.
Whilst I love the story overall and all the ideas brought into it, I found the plot moved on a bit too fast in many of the important places and dragged along in others. Alltogether it did prove quite an easy, enjoyable read, though.
October 27, 2014
2.5 stars
(Read using Kindle Unlimited)
This book was less murder/mystery, and more me just hoping that someone would hurry up and die!
I can’t say I really liked any of the characters in this book. They were all a bit stupid, and made stupid decisions. I mean does anybody really believe those little pop-up ads online that say ‘congratulations! You just won $129,000!’ because one of these characters did.
The storyline in this just wasn’t what I was expecting. We basically got that a dead body had been discovered, and then the story jumped back in time by 3 months, and it took the whole book to find out who would end up dead. To say that I wasn’t impressed would be quite accurate.
There was romance of a sort, but I didn’t like it.
The ending was a bit of a relief, and yay! Somebody finally died!
5 out of 10
(Read using Kindle Unlimited)
This book was less murder/mystery, and more me just hoping that someone would hurry up and die!
I can’t say I really liked any of the characters in this book. They were all a bit stupid, and made stupid decisions. I mean does anybody really believe those little pop-up ads online that say ‘congratulations! You just won $129,000!’ because one of these characters did.
The storyline in this just wasn’t what I was expecting. We basically got that a dead body had been discovered, and then the story jumped back in time by 3 months, and it took the whole book to find out who would end up dead. To say that I wasn’t impressed would be quite accurate.
There was romance of a sort, but I didn’t like it.
The ending was a bit of a relief, and yay! Somebody finally died!
5 out of 10
September 28, 2014
I received this copy for free from Goodreads First Reads Giveaway.
So, I'm not the target audience for this book, but then, who defines "target audience". It may be a Young Adult book, however, I am a parent and by reading this, just re-affirmed the responsibilities a parent has in the upbringing of their child. Also made me remember how different we are when young and the way we see the world.
If I browse for other books by a particular author, it means the book I've got is a success - so yes, Busted Out is a success.
Thank you Marjorie. Appreciate the copy of your book!
So, I'm not the target audience for this book, but then, who defines "target audience". It may be a Young Adult book, however, I am a parent and by reading this, just re-affirmed the responsibilities a parent has in the upbringing of their child. Also made me remember how different we are when young and the way we see the world.
If I browse for other books by a particular author, it means the book I've got is a success - so yes, Busted Out is a success.
Thank you Marjorie. Appreciate the copy of your book!
April 7, 2014
This looked like it was going to be a good book, and from the first couple of chapters it was. I really couldn't get over the 5 or so POVs, it just felt like there were too many main characters. There also seemed to be a lot of inconsistencies, although that could have just been me confusing thins because of all the characters.
Ack, I really wanted to enjoy this.
Thanks Marjorie for a copy of this book for an honest review, I'm sorry I didn't like it.
Ack, I really wanted to enjoy this.
Thanks Marjorie for a copy of this book for an honest review, I'm sorry I didn't like it.
May 21, 2015
Very well written. A must read for young adults as it shows what happens when gambling between teenagers gets out of control.
I would recommend this book.
I would recommend this book.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews