Review: Chloe Doe by Suzanne Phillips

Total: Uh... *stumped* Two-ish.

{From the back cover}

The place they send seventeen-year-old Chloe Doe is better than where she was. Better than the streets, or so she's told. The Madeline Parker Institute for Girls is the place that can change her-that is, if she can let go of the past that has nearly destroyed her.

Inspiring in her ability to overcome, Chloe Doe is poised to show the power of perseverance and, above all, hope.

Behind the Grade:

As noted above, I'm positively stumped by this book. Here's why:

For one, I was absolutely unprepared for the plot (or lack thereof) that fell into my lap. I couldn't find many good descriptions online, but I thought it sounded pretty interesting and I'm a suck34 for sympathize-with-me-dear-reader? stories.

I actually thought this book would be about Chloe, an underage prostitute, going to some schmancy fancy private school and living with a rich foster family she hated, etc. (I was thinking more along the lines of Sarah Dessen's Lock & Key)

Instead, Chloe gets picked up by an undercover cop and is sent to some glorified juvie hall.

Well, then.

Some background characters are well expanded-upon, which I thought was good. You get to know Chloe's roommate at Madeline Parker pretty well and through flashbacks you can't help but relate Chloe's older sister, Camille, to your siblings, if you have any.

That being said, eh. I was waiting for the chapter/page/line when I would go, "Wow. That was so 'moving.'' (As blurbed by KLIATT on the back cover) I never did. It was just kind of boring. There was no real plot. It's not very uplifting, though it tries to be at times, but Chloe's first-person is so blah and boring and deadpan, I wasn't even sad.

Wouldn't recommend this, though the writing is a saving grace.