Justice

Justice (1995) Faye Kellerman

I am very conflicted about this story.

The story is told from (mostly) two points of view: from Rina and Peter’s point of view, and from the point of the two teenagers, Chris and Terry. It felt like there was more of the teenagers than of the grown-ups, but that might be because those sections were more compelling. After all, we have two teenagers going through something extremely complicated, and both had extremely difficult backgrounds.

“You said he was hard to read. What did you mean by that?”

Kathy thought a moment. “Chris is very… even-tempered. A trait like that stands out when you’re dealing with a thousand hormonally imbalanced adolescents.”

“You know what, Terry? You’re a terrible liar.”

She blinked back tears. “I’m not lying. I’m skirting the truth with the judicious use of modifiers.”

Which brings me to my issues with this story–not only are we seeing Chris mostly through Rina’s eyes, what we see just of him is also unreliable. Yet, it’s hard not to have sympathy for a kid whose past is so very terrible. Terry’s past is also hard, but not in the same terrible way as Chris, which is what makes Chris so difficult.

Chris has had a terrible past, but has come out of it able to function in society. And it’s very difficult to see that with one exception, nothing good seems to come to Terry. Yes, life is unfair, but that doesn’t mean I wanted to spend so much time with someone who gets shat upon by the world.

Published by William Morrow

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