LIFEBOAT CLIQUE

Denver Reynolds is a Californian high school students whose former best friend, Abigail, has gone on to bigger and better things, sitting atop the social chain, looking —or rather, snarling— down upon Denver with complete disdain. Previously, Denver made some questionable choices that had her labelled a traitor, and her life since has been a gauntlet of criticism and social gloom

She projects a thick coat of glibness and an air of intellectual superiority (she is smarter than everybody else, after all), but that is all to hide the pain she feels as a result of her annexation and the loss of her closest compatriot, Abigail.

Abigail, for her part, has made her name by hosting a series of kickass parties at other people’s empty homes. Denver is invited to one of these parties by Croix, a cute popular boy she has a crush on, but when she arrives she is greeted coolly, to put it mildly, and with great hostility, to be more accurate. When she finally gets a moment alone with Croix, the truly unthinkable happens: A tsunami hits the coast of California.

While almost everybody at the party is killed, Denver, Abigail, two of Abigail’s clique, and a jock with a crotch obsession find themselves floating on an abandoned boat in the middle of the ocean. There’s no land in sight and they have no idea how to get back to civilization. No food. They can’t drink the water. Death is imminent.

The Lifeboat Clique is what is called, in the parlance of the television writer, a “bottle episode,” wherein characters who typically don’t belong together, or have existing conflicts are confined to a small space together without means of escape, and we get to watch the fireworks happen.

Kathy Parks uses the structure wonderfully as well, masterfully drawing out the tensions, and breaking down walls here and there with effective and realistic pacing. She purposefully exposes layers of her characters over time, so that we become educated to their depths as Denver is; nobody is what they seem… Or, maybe, nobody is what the seem in isolation from anything else.

The Lifeboat Clique is a legitimately funny, biting novel, which cuts apart typical high school social structures and relationships with razor sharp precision. It is a world class work which is both subversive and breezy; perfect to throw into your beach bag.