Play Me - Hardcover

Ruby, Laura

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0061243272 ISBN 13: 9780061243271

Publisher: HarperTeen, 2008

Synopsis

Eddy knows how to play the game.

He is, after all, the writer, director, and cameraman—the mastermind, really—behind the hit online TV show Riot Grrl 16. When it wins a contest to be aired on MTV (and it obviously will—have you seen the competition?), he'll be famous.

Then there's the game of love. Eddy knows all the tricks, and his favorite girls are the ones with the fishnets and cherry lipstick and legs up to there. The ones who know he doesn't make any promises. The ones who are cool with it.

But as graduation looms, everything and everyone starts deviating from Eddy's master script. Never in a million years did he expect to be facing off again with the unapproachable, perfect Lucinda Dulko. For once in his life, he's not in control—and to be with Lucinda, he's willing to get swept up in the game. But what happens to a player when the rules suddenly change?

Can Eddy find a way to win it all?

Or will he get played?

About this title

About the Author:

Laura Ruby is the author of books for adults, teens, and children, including the Printz Award-winning and National Book Award finalist Bone Gap, the Edgar-nominated mystery Lily’s Ghosts, the Book Sense Pick Good Girls, and the acclaimed novels York, Play Me, and Bad Apple. She is on the faculty of Hamline University’s MFA in writing for children and young adults program and lives in the Chicago area. You can visit her online at www.lauraruby.com.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 9 Up—Set in Ruby's Good Girls (HarperTempest, 2006) universe, this is the story of 18-year-old filmmaker Edward "Eddy" Rochester (named for Orson Welles's version, not Brontė's original), who was raised on cinema by his struggling actress mother. Now she's left the family for a bit part on a formulaic Miami crime show. At the close of senior year, Eddy is not thinking college. His main concerns are making movies (getting MTV to produce Riot Grrl 16 that he and his friends shot) and making moves on girls (lately, the fierce, athletic, unattainable Lucinda Dulko). Normally accustomed to getting girls without getting caught up, he's enthralled. Eventually insecurities and differing game plans for their futures find Eddy in a new role—dumpee. This wrinkle, combined with his AWOL mother and threatened career goals, means an impromptu road trip (important but somewhat tacked on) and serious self-evaluation. Eddy is enjoyable in that charming, self-obsessed, heartbreaker way, and he's flawed and vulnerable enough to be real. While readers will root for Riot Grrl 16's success, what will grab them is the focus on Eddy's relationships—with Lucinda, his mom, his friends (serious Joe, horn-dog video-clerk Rory, faux-punk and bluntly honest Gina), and his family of abandoned men. The best moments involve uncensored Gina or heartbreaking Meatball, Eddy's half brother, who spouts morbid factoids and "dies" various deaths waiting for Eddy to revive him. Pop culture (film related), innuendos, sexual situations (not graphic), and snappy dialogue are all a part of this relationship-centered read.—Danielle Serra, Cliffside Park Public Library, NJ
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About this edition

• Publisher: HarperTeen
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0061243272
• ISBN 13: 9780061243271
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320