Photo Finish

At first, it seems 15-year-old Blake, the protagonist of L.K. Madigan’s debut young adult novel, Flash Burnout, has just two concerns in life: his cheery girlfriend, Shannon, and honing his comedic talent. Then he grows closer to Marissa, a friend from photography class, after he photographs a meth addict on the streets of Portland who turns out to be Marissa’s missing mother. After Marissa and her mom are reunited, Blake tries to be supportive, but keeping Marissa’s secrets from Shannon puts a strain on their relationship.

The plot has the usual high-school drama elements—sex, drugs, a love triangle, over-attentive parents—but manages to avoid drowning in too much adolescent angst. A photography motif ties the story together on multiple levels, with instructions from photo manuals serving as epigraphs to each chapter. Their photo teacher refers to Marissa and Blake as the “Pretty-Gritty” team, and the novel will appeal to a diverse audience because of its ability to balance both of these elements. While Madigan writes convincingly as a a teenage boy, she loses credibility with too many unusual names: A high-school DJ goes by “Chick Trickster” on air, and classmates include Kaylee, Riley, Jasmine, and Dez.

Fear Factor: (Blake’s father is a medical examiner with broad notions of what makes for appropriate dinner conversation and no qualms about bringing his kids to the office. There are also a few PG-13-level sex scenes.)
Heart: (Blake shows a lot of empathy for both his girl friend and his girlfriend.)
Attitude: (Most of the characters are pretty respectful of their parents and their rules, but Blake and his brother swear frequently.)
Psst: The title, Flash Burnout, is a photo term for a picture in which a photographer stands too close to his subject and overexposes it with the flash.
If you like this: The teens in Chris Crutcher’s story collection Angry Management also struggle with problems that force them to come together and grow up quickly.