Playing in Traffic -- Gail Giles

Gail Giles = Modern Noir

I thought I knew where Playing in Traffic was headed from the beginning. Of course, I thought I knew where Dead Girls Don't Write Letters was headed, too, and Gail Giles tricked me then. So I should have known better. But this one seems so clear. Even from the beginning:

I was the ghost of school corridors.

Skye was the devil.

And I was doomed from the day she spoke to me.

I saw what was coming well before Skye asked Matt for a huge "favor". But so did Matt. And as the story continued, I kept thinking, "There is no way. There is no way that he'll go through with this. He's too smart. He knows that she's a liar." But, it being a book by Gail Giles, I still couldn't be sure. And for real, I didn't know for sure what was going to happen until the very last page.

I did find the style a little off-putting at first—kind of the way I find Koertge a little off-putting. But I stayed with it, and I got so engrossed that I was a couple of minutes late to work the morning that I finished it. I could not put it down. It's a totally worth-it read. As are the rest of her books. Love her.