Starting off in media res, we come across an adolescent in trouble. She’s lost in a maze of corridors and something hungry is chasing her. This is typical horror movie territory. Cue the scary music.
Then we’re immersed in what occurs before this fateful happenstance. Adolescents are in Paris. Paris! The City of Lights! It’s a splendid journey and something that most American students would kill to experience. But Ruby craves more than that. She wants more, the scenery off the beaten path, to boldly go where few have gone before—and she wants the footage for her online feed. Of course.
The travails of adolescent—burgeoning lust, betrayed friends, intrusive adults, misunderstandings—are on full display as Ruby tries to squeeze the most out of her Paris tour. But it’s not enough for her. She gives in to temptation and does something stupid, the kind of maneuver that would have audience members screaming at the silver screen.
The characters are limned in sparse lines but we get to know them well through the author’s deft writing. There’s the angry yet glamorous ex-best friend, the daring nerd, the jock who’s going to join the military, the adrenaline junkie who eagerly goes off with a hot, foreign stranger, the dazzling French boy who promises thrills like no other—they’re familiar and yet have their own unique streaks of personality.
All of them enter into a situation that promises party or peril and the excerpt breaks off just as the situation promises to get…interesting. Horror movie aficionados, gather ‘round. Something evil’s lurking in the dark…
Then we’re immersed in what occurs before this fateful happenstance. Adolescents are in Paris. Paris! The City of Lights! It’s a splendid journey and something that most American students would kill to experience. But Ruby craves more than that. She wants more, the scenery off the beaten path, to boldly go where few have gone before—and she wants the footage for her online feed. Of course.
The travails of adolescent—burgeoning lust, betrayed friends, intrusive adults, misunderstandings—are on full display as Ruby tries to squeeze the most out of her Paris tour. But it’s not enough for her. She gives in to temptation and does something stupid, the kind of maneuver that would have audience members screaming at the silver screen.
The characters are limned in sparse lines but we get to know them well through the author’s deft writing. There’s the angry yet glamorous ex-best friend, the daring nerd, the jock who’s going to join the military, the adrenaline junkie who eagerly goes off with a hot, foreign stranger, the dazzling French boy who promises thrills like no other—they’re familiar and yet have their own unique streaks of personality.
All of them enter into a situation that promises party or peril and the excerpt breaks off just as the situation promises to get…interesting. Horror movie aficionados, gather ‘round. Something evil’s lurking in the dark…