Going Under: Book Seven in the Clarksville series

by Barbara L. Clanton

Susie Torres is a second-semester senior who has devoted friends and an amazing girlfriend in Marlee McAllister. Susie’s father has the kind of job that takes him away from home on frequent business trips, but lately his trips seem to be longer and more frequent. Tensions rise at home when Susie’s mother challenges him about that. At first, Susie and her younger brother Miguel hide out in her room when their parents’ frequent squabbles elevate to out-and-out yelling matches. But as her parents’ war escalates further, Susie finds other ways to escape the tension. A fake ID becomes a clear and easy way to anesthetize herself with alcohol. Her crumbling home life becomes momentarily forgotten whenever she swims in a sea of peaceful drunken bliss. Unfortunately, Susie doesn’t realize that with her attempts to cope with her parents’ possible divorce, she is alienating everyone around her. Including Marlee. Her best friend Sam tries to warn her that her excessive drinking is driving away all of her friends, but Sam’s well-meaning advice isn’t heard. Will Susie finally realize that it is her own actions that are making her life fall apart around her? That her new love of drinking is getting in way of everything that was good in her life? That her amazingly patient girlfriend isn’t going to put up with much more?

326 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 10, 2018

About the author

Barbara L. Clanton writes young adult lesbian fiction because she wants girls and young women to experience positive lesbian coming out stories. Clanton hopes her books will be safe harbors for young people coming out to themselves, their friends, family, and society.

From the author's website: Barbara L. Clanton is
- a writer of Young Adult Fiction
- a writer of Children's Fiction
- a New York Mets fan
- a New York Jets fan
- a Florida resident
- a native-born New Yawker
- a softball pitcher
- ASANA Hall of Fame inductee
- a bass player in her band
- the proud "mama" to several cats
- proudly in a long-term relationship
- a Buffy fan
- a Xena & Gabrielle fan
- a mathematics teacher
- wishing she were a snow-bird
- wishing she were at a Mets game
- happy that you read her bio! ;)

Reviews

[Cindy Stein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Susie Torres is going through a very rough time. Her parents are fighting all the time and her father is often away in Vermont on long business trips. Her only respite is her girlfriend, Marlee, and a group of close friends. But Susie, a high school senior in rural NY state, is reluctant to talk about family matters with her friends. Instead, she decides to retreat from reality by drinking beer with a group of other friends who are happy to introduce her to all kinds of beers and alcohol.

These issues of family crisis and teen alcoholism are well drawn in this YA novel, the 7th in a series about teen lesbians in this community. The book overall was engaging and I was interested in Susie's family issue and how she would deal with her growing alcoholism, including its effect on her relationship and friendships.

My 3 issues with the book are as follows: 1) While it's clear that Susie is portrayed as Latina, I wondered if the author could have benefited from a Latinx beta reader. No such person was mentioned in the acknowledgements and it's become best practice in fiction to make sure cultural issues are dealt with accurately. 2) Given the evolution of teenage America, with increased focus on gender identity and social justice, I wonder if this author has kept up with the times. 3) The author's effort to balance things in the end by drawing an equivalence between Susie's alcoholism and her gf's consumption of sugar seemed unnecessary.