The House Party by Rita Cameron

THE HOUSE PARTY by Rita Cameron revolves around the very poor choices that unformed teenage minds make at times. Several high school students break into a new construction house and hold a party with drugs and booze and then some engage in sexual assault and ultimately cause over a hundred-thousand dollars damage when they wreck the house. That new home was a kind of last hope for Maja and Ted Jensen, transplants from New York who have not been successful at getting pregnant and struggle with their relationship. These are not minor crimes, but who gets blamed by local authorities? The kids with working class parents, with less privilege and less clout. Cameron does an excellent job of evoking emotion – the dread and fear, the embarrassment, the jealousy, the entitlement that lurks in this suburban Philadelphia community. Therefore, this novel was quite uncomfortable to read at times and it was difficult to empathize with the well-drawn, but basically selfish characters. THE HOUSE PARTY received starred reviews from Booklist and Publishers Weekly (“Cameron does a stellar job at demonstrating how easily stereotyping and wealth can influence outcomes”).