Review Detail

Reader reviewed by Bookworm9

Books told from multiple perspectives always tend to be interesting, and "Fade to Black" is no exception as the story is told alternately from the first person voices of Clint, an insecure bigot; Daria, a girl with Down Syndrome; and Alex, whose recent diagnosis of HIV has left him with plenty of personal and family issues. Personally, I found Clint to be highly annoying and Daria, whose narrative was told solely in free verse poems (a device that was nice in its uniqueness, if not particularly realistic) to be underdeveloped, and the story might have been even stronger if it focused solely on Alex. However, I can also see Flinn's reasons for using all three voices, and she did achieve certain messages through it that she might not have achieved through a single voice. The other problem I had was the somewhat old-fashioned view of HIV/ AIDS, including the school's need to tell the entire student body about Alex's condition, but Flinn does explain some of this as the story goes along. All in all, this was a fairly powerful book that tackled a lot of sensitive issues without becoming too heavy handed.