Cara Lockwood, Wuthering High

Wuthering High

Cara Lockwood

Rocket, July 2006, $9.99, 286 pp.

ISBN: 141624755

After maxing out her hated step-mother's credit card and stealing and crashing her father's BMW, both her mother and dad decide to send her to a school that deals with behavior problems. Bard Academy, located on Nowheresville Island off Maine is a dark and foreboding place, gothic architecture with gargoyles on every buildings give it a creepy atmosphere. Miranda knows she is going to hate it when she meets her roommate who has pictures of Satan on her wall and believes in vampires.

Strange things happen in Bard Academy starting with the light turning on in her closet with her and her roommate in their beds. A boy name Heathcliffe is fixated on her and calls her Cathy and rescue hers whenever a fire breaks out which happens when she hears a cackling laugh. Her school counselor is always wearing wet clothes and drips water wherever she goes. When Miranda learns the truth about what is happening at the school, she and her friends find themselves in danger.

Miranda is angry at her father for abandoning her mother and marrying a bimbo nine years older than she is. Her misbehavior is a way to gain attention from her father who ignores her. The lessons at Bard Academy helps her accept her life as it is not as she would like it to be. She also learns that the only person she can change is herself. Cara Lockwood has written a charming fantasy that sends important messages to teens who will understand them because Miranda, using asides, explains them to herself. This reviewer wood love to see a sequel to WUTHERING HIGH.

Harriet Klausner