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Finding Erin Campbell
Erin Campbell is lucky – she’s popular, she’s been accepted at Berkeley, she’s got the perfect boyfriend, a great car, parents with plenty of money, and a future that’s going to be even better than her dreams. Lucky, right?
But then one Tuesday afternoon, Erin’s luck runs out. She’s in her car, driving on a deserted country road, and she reads a text from her boyfriend. It’s only a few words, no big deal. What could happen in ten seconds, anyway? But she doesn’t see the boy on the blue bicycle. Not until it’s too late. Not until he’s lying in the road, broken and bleeding, and she’s standing there staring down at him, her cell phone in her hand.
Things get worse when another girl – Macy Wilkes, an outsider at Erin’s school – is charged with the hit-and-run. Macy is black, she doesn’t live in Erin’s upscale neighborhood, and it would be so easy for Erin to just let Macy take the rap. Or would it?
This is a novel about what it means to do the right thing in a world that isn’t always fair. Confessing could cost Erin everything – college, her boyfriend, her parents’ respect . . . even her freedom. But not confessing could cost her even more.
Sometimes the world can fall apart in the time it takes to read a text message. Erin Campbell lost herself on a Tuesday afternoon; finding herself again will mean looking at who she really is. Warts and all. And there’s nothing harder than that.
But then one Tuesday afternoon, Erin’s luck runs out. She’s in her car, driving on a deserted country road, and she reads a text from her boyfriend. It’s only a few words, no big deal. What could happen in ten seconds, anyway? But she doesn’t see the boy on the blue bicycle. Not until it’s too late. Not until he’s lying in the road, broken and bleeding, and she’s standing there staring down at him, her cell phone in her hand.
Things get worse when another girl – Macy Wilkes, an outsider at Erin’s school – is charged with the hit-and-run. Macy is black, she doesn’t live in Erin’s upscale neighborhood, and it would be so easy for Erin to just let Macy take the rap. Or would it?
This is a novel about what it means to do the right thing in a world that isn’t always fair. Confessing could cost Erin everything – college, her boyfriend, her parents’ respect . . . even her freedom. But not confessing could cost her even more.
Sometimes the world can fall apart in the time it takes to read a text message. Erin Campbell lost herself on a Tuesday afternoon; finding herself again will mean looking at who she really is. Warts and all. And there’s nothing harder than that.
249 pages, Paperback
First published May 24, 2015
15 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
November 22, 2018
High-schooler Erin Campbell finds out the true meaning of, "Your life can change in an instant," when she takes her eyes off the road for ten seconds to read a text from her boyfriend. What comes next? A sickening crunch, a ruined blue bicycle, and a small boy lying in the road next to Erin's car: bent, broken, and bleeding. Self-preservation takes over and Erin flees the scene, calling 9-11 thirty minutes later from a rest-stop pay phone, then wiping her fingerprints off the receiver using her tee-shirt.
When a fatherless African American girl from the poor part of town gets set up to take the fall, Erin has to face losing her friends, her boyfriend, her college career, and everything she thought mattered to her. Will her guilt and conscience convince her to do the right thing and turn herself in, or is it just too easy to let someone else take the blame?
When a fatherless African American girl from the poor part of town gets set up to take the fall, Erin has to face losing her friends, her boyfriend, her college career, and everything she thought mattered to her. Will her guilt and conscience convince her to do the right thing and turn herself in, or is it just too easy to let someone else take the blame?
June 19, 2015
Just by reading the prologue, I knew this was going to be one intriguing tale to follow.
It begins with Erin Campbell - smart, friendly, wealthy, Erin. She was saying goodbye to her beloved boyfriend at the front steps of the school and about to pick up some dry cleaning on the way home, and that's when her whole world changed.
She was texting and driving, very out of character for her, when she all-of-a-sudden hit a little boy while going around a curve in the road. At first, she thought she had just dented his blue bike and knocked him over, very quickly she found out that wasn't the case. Before she knew it, she was standing over a little boy with a leg that shouldn't be bent that way and a pool of blood surrounding his head. Then she did the unthinkable... she left him there. When that guilt became too much on that one day, she called 911 on a payphone at a rest stop on the interstate.
Story progresses to her eventually telling her best friend and then trying to move past this crushing guilt. I know it sounds like I should be hating this narrator by now, but the author has such a way with expressing Erin's thoughts that it's hard to be angry at her.
And the way the story is written, you get to see Erin's day-by-day struggles, growth, maturing, and experiences.
This story goes beyond a privileged girl making a grave mistake. It touches on questions of prejudice, racism, economic standings, and even the court system as a whole.
The story builds so steadily and understandably. Some interesting relationships are put into place, too. And there's a twist toward the end that will be just what you need to get you through the last few chapters, though I find the conclusion to drag a bit.
Overall, a great story that leads you to even question your own morality. - Bianca B.
It begins with Erin Campbell - smart, friendly, wealthy, Erin. She was saying goodbye to her beloved boyfriend at the front steps of the school and about to pick up some dry cleaning on the way home, and that's when her whole world changed.
She was texting and driving, very out of character for her, when she all-of-a-sudden hit a little boy while going around a curve in the road. At first, she thought she had just dented his blue bike and knocked him over, very quickly she found out that wasn't the case. Before she knew it, she was standing over a little boy with a leg that shouldn't be bent that way and a pool of blood surrounding his head. Then she did the unthinkable... she left him there. When that guilt became too much on that one day, she called 911 on a payphone at a rest stop on the interstate.
Story progresses to her eventually telling her best friend and then trying to move past this crushing guilt. I know it sounds like I should be hating this narrator by now, but the author has such a way with expressing Erin's thoughts that it's hard to be angry at her.
And the way the story is written, you get to see Erin's day-by-day struggles, growth, maturing, and experiences.
This story goes beyond a privileged girl making a grave mistake. It touches on questions of prejudice, racism, economic standings, and even the court system as a whole.
The story builds so steadily and understandably. Some interesting relationships are put into place, too. And there's a twist toward the end that will be just what you need to get you through the last few chapters, though I find the conclusion to drag a bit.
Overall, a great story that leads you to even question your own morality. - Bianca B.
August 3, 2015
Finding Erin Campbell was such a great read.
The story felt very true to life. The elements of racism and classism easily ring true to today's society. We see how Erin struggles to come forth with the real story about what happened on Canal Rd. We see how her decisions, both to keep quiet and to ultimately tell the truth, affect those around her. The characters feel like they could have been picked out of any high school in middle America. Their realness adds to the believability of the book. This entire book reads like real life and that's definitely one of the reasons I enjoyed it so much.
I can easily recommend Finding Erin Campbell to anyone that enjoys YA that mirrors real life.
* This book was received from the author in exchange for an honest review. *
The story felt very true to life. The elements of racism and classism easily ring true to today's society. We see how Erin struggles to come forth with the real story about what happened on Canal Rd. We see how her decisions, both to keep quiet and to ultimately tell the truth, affect those around her. The characters feel like they could have been picked out of any high school in middle America. Their realness adds to the believability of the book. This entire book reads like real life and that's definitely one of the reasons I enjoyed it so much.
I can easily recommend Finding Erin Campbell to anyone that enjoys YA that mirrors real life.
* This book was received from the author in exchange for an honest review. *
September 24, 2015
One of the best books I've read this year!
We don’t really know who we are until we are tested.
Erin Campbell is a good person. Everyone who knows her (her teachers, her friends, her parents) would tell you that she isn’t the type of girl who would tell a lie. She’s smart and nice and kind; she’d never hurt anyone—but everything Erin Campbell and the people who love her take for granted about Erin is up for grabs when, in one thoughtless moment, she slams the front fender of her car into an eight-year-old boy riding a blue bicycle and she decides to flee the scene. First she’s panicked and then she’s wallowing in remorse, and every decision she makes is fraught with dire and unpredictable consequences. This is a story about a young woman’s struggle to take responsibility for her actions against the protective instincts of parents and friends, and a prejudicial justice system that does its best to stack the odds to favor achieving white children who come from well-to-do families.
Finding Erin Campbell is a fast moving and affecting page-turner. Kathy Cunningham has given us believable three-dimensional characters, especially Erin, whose voice is pitch-perfect. I was right there with Erin from first page to last, seeing the world through her eyes—and it can be a scary sad world out there.
This is a book I’ll send to my daughters, recommend to my book club, and encourage my friends to read.
We don’t really know who we are until we are tested.
Erin Campbell is a good person. Everyone who knows her (her teachers, her friends, her parents) would tell you that she isn’t the type of girl who would tell a lie. She’s smart and nice and kind; she’d never hurt anyone—but everything Erin Campbell and the people who love her take for granted about Erin is up for grabs when, in one thoughtless moment, she slams the front fender of her car into an eight-year-old boy riding a blue bicycle and she decides to flee the scene. First she’s panicked and then she’s wallowing in remorse, and every decision she makes is fraught with dire and unpredictable consequences. This is a story about a young woman’s struggle to take responsibility for her actions against the protective instincts of parents and friends, and a prejudicial justice system that does its best to stack the odds to favor achieving white children who come from well-to-do families.
Finding Erin Campbell is a fast moving and affecting page-turner. Kathy Cunningham has given us believable three-dimensional characters, especially Erin, whose voice is pitch-perfect. I was right there with Erin from first page to last, seeing the world through her eyes—and it can be a scary sad world out there.
This is a book I’ll send to my daughters, recommend to my book club, and encourage my friends to read.
June 22, 2015
What do you do when your perfect life seems to go on quite normally even though you've done an unforgiveable thing? And how can you reach any kind of peace when not only those closest to you but also circumstances seem to force you further and further away from acknowledging when you've done? This is the dilemma faced by Kathy Cunningham's Erin Campbell on the eve of her graduation from high school. This is not just a novel about the consequences of texting while driving; Erin has to face important issues such as the role of privilege, race, and wealth in the justice system. I found myself catching my breath as I scrolled through the pages - the plot has so many surprises! Too, I missed a bit of sleep staying up late reading to find out how Erin would respond to each development in her story. Cunningham writes with the voice of authenticity - she knows teenagers; she knows how they talk and how they think. Her writing flows beautifully; Finding Erin Campbell is not just a good story, it's a well-written novel. This would be a wonderful book to read and discuss and I'm recommending it to my book club!
June 9, 2015
Finding Erin Campbell, by Kathy Cunningham
Don’t text while you drive!
Or you may end up in this nightmare: Finding Erin Campell is about a popular white high school girl, daughter of prominent attorneys, who runs down a boy on a bicycle while she is driving and texting, and leaves the scene of the accident. At first, she avoids responsibility for the murder, and entangles herself in a thicket of lies. Macy Wilkes, an African-American classmate who can’t afford a lawyer, is accused of the crime and faces a long jail sentence. Erin is tortured by guilt, but doesn’t know what to do. Finding Erin Campbell is a tension-filled morality play about racism, classism, and the consequences of texting while driving and not promptly accepting responsibility for one’s actions. It is a gripping tale of crime without punishment that should enthrall a wide audience.
—Richard Morris, author of Canoedling in Cleveland,
Well Considered, and Cologne No. 10 For Men
Don’t text while you drive!
Or you may end up in this nightmare: Finding Erin Campell is about a popular white high school girl, daughter of prominent attorneys, who runs down a boy on a bicycle while she is driving and texting, and leaves the scene of the accident. At first, she avoids responsibility for the murder, and entangles herself in a thicket of lies. Macy Wilkes, an African-American classmate who can’t afford a lawyer, is accused of the crime and faces a long jail sentence. Erin is tortured by guilt, but doesn’t know what to do. Finding Erin Campbell is a tension-filled morality play about racism, classism, and the consequences of texting while driving and not promptly accepting responsibility for one’s actions. It is a gripping tale of crime without punishment that should enthrall a wide audience.
—Richard Morris, author of Canoedling in Cleveland,
Well Considered, and Cologne No. 10 For Men
August 23, 2015
Emotionally compelling, with a fascinating and complex premise that unfolds into a compulsive page-turner. The story opens a window into the mind of a young woman dealing with the nightmarish consequences of an innocent mistake, and underlying the well-constructed plot is a haunting discussion about having the courage to do the right thing. Highly recommended.
September 15, 2015
Ms. Cunningham has written a fabulous must-read book. I had a hard time putting it down. I loved it! It's timely, thought-provoking, real, emotional, tragic, heart-breaking...it shows how one split-second bad decision can change the course of a life. I'll definitely be recommending this wonderful well-written book to both teens and adults.
January 19, 2018
For the first part of "Finding Erin Campbell" we watch helplessly as Erin makes one bad decision after another. She commits an involuntary crime and then piles a cascade of deliberate crimes on top of it. This part of the story wasn’t particularly gripping for me but I’m glad I stuck with it because when Erin finishes digging her grave this book takes off.
We all know there are always new ways to commit crimes. That’s why we have a never ending succession of good mystery and suspense books. But how many ways are there to pay for a crime? And haven’t we seen all of them ten times over? And yet…the way Erin pays for her crime, the way she climbs out of that grave, is inspirational and unexpected.
Kathy Cunningham has given us an engaging and well written story. And, even though the main characters are high school age, which caused me some hesitation at first (I’m old), I believe this book will appeal to readers of all ages. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys excellent literary fiction. And, because it’s a story about virtue, I also recommend it for young adults, but parents should know there is a bit more language than is customary for that genre. I give it a solid five stars.
We all know there are always new ways to commit crimes. That’s why we have a never ending succession of good mystery and suspense books. But how many ways are there to pay for a crime? And haven’t we seen all of them ten times over? And yet…the way Erin pays for her crime, the way she climbs out of that grave, is inspirational and unexpected.
Kathy Cunningham has given us an engaging and well written story. And, even though the main characters are high school age, which caused me some hesitation at first (I’m old), I believe this book will appeal to readers of all ages. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys excellent literary fiction. And, because it’s a story about virtue, I also recommend it for young adults, but parents should know there is a bit more language than is customary for that genre. I give it a solid five stars.
October 21, 2015
An intense cautionary tale for teens. One moment of negligence can turn your life upside down. And nothing will be the same again, regardless of how hard you try to restore things. This is what privileged and lucky Erin Campbell discovered after her car hit a young boy on a bicycle while she was texting. Her choices about how to handle this event drive this gripping and compelling story of a 17-year-old girl torn between fear of ruining her life and the inner forces of integrity. Initially Erin chooses to hide her guilt, since there were no witnesses to the hit-and-run accident. Building lie upon lie, she ensnares herself in an ever-tightening web of duplicity, supported by her best friend Annie's advice to cover up evidence and keep her future on track. But Erin's conscience wreaks havoc with her cover-up and slowly compels her into involvements with the deceased boy's older brother, his family, and the black classmate who is accused in a set-up to solve the case. How Erin unravels this web of lies and sets her conscience clear is a beautiful story of the human character's potential for true heroism. In the process, it explores issues of race, privilege, fairness and social justice. With engaging, believable characters and realistic teen dialogue; emotionally gripping and suspenseful scenes; and compelling plot, this book keeps you reading.
There are no easy answers, and what Erin does changes her life and the lives of everyone close to her. When she does find herself, it is a different Erin Campbell who comes "to accept the flow of the river, to move with it, and not to regret the things it takes with it as it flows past me." This is an excellent book for teens to learn the importance of staying aware and holding to their higher principles. As Erin says: "There is no such thing as lucky. There's only making the right choices and doing the right thing."
I was fortunate to receive this book as a gift, and this is my honest review.
There are no easy answers, and what Erin does changes her life and the lives of everyone close to her. When she does find herself, it is a different Erin Campbell who comes "to accept the flow of the river, to move with it, and not to regret the things it takes with it as it flows past me." This is an excellent book for teens to learn the importance of staying aware and holding to their higher principles. As Erin says: "There is no such thing as lucky. There's only making the right choices and doing the right thing."
I was fortunate to receive this book as a gift, and this is my honest review.
January 8, 2016
For Erin Campbell, time is a one way door. On one side she is the privileged young woman who attends a prestigious private high school, dates the “most likely to succeed” guy, drives her own brand new car, has been accepted in an Ivy League university, and is secure in her friendships and her place in the world. But one tragic, stupid mistake changes Erin Campbell’s life and she is on the other side of the door forever, never to return.
FINDING ERIN CAMPBELL is a beautifully written novel. Author Kathy Cunningham does an excellent job keeping the reader in Erin Campbell’s point of view, whether she is doing something so horrible it seems beyond redemption or whether she is wracked with guilt to the point that any punishment the legal system could impose can’t satisfy her self-loathing. The flawless pacing of FINDING ERIN CAMPBELL takes the reader on a journey that is both heart stopping and heartbreaking.
But author Kathy Cunningham never lets Erin Campbell off easy and in this, I would love to see FINDING ERIN CAMPBELL added to reading lists of every high school. Erin Campbell goes from wanting to escape her crime to the point that she’d let an innocent girl go to jail to confronting what she has done in an idealistic, yet realistic, way.
Bravo to author Kathy Cunningham. FINDING ERIN CAMPBELL is a story that will stay with me for a long time. Thank you!
FINDING ERIN CAMPBELL is a beautifully written novel. Author Kathy Cunningham does an excellent job keeping the reader in Erin Campbell’s point of view, whether she is doing something so horrible it seems beyond redemption or whether she is wracked with guilt to the point that any punishment the legal system could impose can’t satisfy her self-loathing. The flawless pacing of FINDING ERIN CAMPBELL takes the reader on a journey that is both heart stopping and heartbreaking.
But author Kathy Cunningham never lets Erin Campbell off easy and in this, I would love to see FINDING ERIN CAMPBELL added to reading lists of every high school. Erin Campbell goes from wanting to escape her crime to the point that she’d let an innocent girl go to jail to confronting what she has done in an idealistic, yet realistic, way.
Bravo to author Kathy Cunningham. FINDING ERIN CAMPBELL is a story that will stay with me for a long time. Thank you!
September 25, 2015
This is an excellent read that reminds me of some of my favorite YA books, like those by John Green, or Before I Fall. The prose is a delight throughout, and the dialogue and inner monologue perfectly capture Erin Campbell's unique perspective. But don't let the fun of the voice fool you – this is a weighty book, with life-changing decisions and situations that are dealt with in a deft, valuable way. I can't recommend it highly enough. This is one of those indie books that justifies the entire indie publishing trend. A stand out that you need on your book shelf.
March 10, 2024
Received for review from the publisher. Original review removed.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews