Bottled Up

Pip’s desperate to escape his life—he’s been skipping classes, drinking, getting high. Anything and everything to avoid his smug teachers, his sweet but needy little brother, his difficult home life. Now he’s been busted by Principal Giraldi and given an ultimatum: either he shows up for all his classes and sees a counselor after school, or he’s expelled. Pip’s freaked out; not because he might get kicked out of school, but by the thought that Giraldi might call his father. Because Pip will do anything to avoid his father.Alternately cocky, funny and maudlin, [this novel] gets its appeal from PipÆs unnervingly convincing teenage voice. (The Washington Post)First-time novelist Jaye Murray is a social worker who lives in New Rochelle, New York.