The Tragedy Paper by Elizabeth LaBan

Tim Macbeth, a seventeen-year-old albino and a recent transfer to the prestigious Irving School, where the motto is “Enter here to be and find a friend.” A friend is the last thing Tim expects or wants—he just hopes to get through his senior year unnoticed. Yet, despite his efforts to blend into the background, he finds himself falling for the quintessential “It” girl, Vanessa Sheller, girlfriend of Irving’s most popular boy. To Tim's surprise, Vanessa is into him, too, but she can kiss her social status goodbye if anyone ever finds out. Tim and Vanessa begin a clandestine romance, but looming over them is the Tragedy Paper, Irving’s version of a senior year thesis, assigned by the school’s least forgiving teacher.

This book was very interesting. The subject of private schools, albino people, and the social ladder combined made for an interesting read. The beginning held a lot of questions that left me craving more of this book. This book had many things I would expect, but it also had many places where I was thinking, what in the world?   

The storyline is based on an albino boy, named Tim, going to finish high school at a private boarding school and the things he encounters at this new place.  His parents are in a different country and he has never been anywhere without them.  

The beginning starts out simple enough with another boy, named Duncan who is in his senior year. He finds his “treasure” in the tiny little room he gets. The “treasure” is a pack of CDs left by the albino kid recounting his experiences in his senior year. Then Duncan becomes almost obsessed with the CDs and wants to know more about Tim’s recollection of his senior year and the impact Duncan had on him. Then Duncan brings his newfound girlfriend in to listen to the CDs and then crazy begins to take control. Major injury, near fatal experiences and minor violence surprised me very much.  

 Another thing that was good about this book is that the author, Elizabeth Laban, took the extra step to make this piece more interesting. She added many details about regular school life and details about the settings and characters adding more personality to deeply immerse her readers in the story. I was greatly impressed with this read.  

On my “Amazingly Fabulous Book Scale” I would give this book a 7 for great details, great plot twists and interesting characters. (Note: This book does have small drinking references, so if you do not want your child to read about that, then do not get them this book. It does not have anything else bad, so it is fairly clean.)

*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.  Hannah