Locked Inside

Marnie's life, from the outside, looks like one that many people would want. She's a very wealthy heiress going to a prestigous school. She has more freedom than most teenagers even dream about.

From the inside, however, Marnie is incredibly lonely and defensive. Her conflicting emotions about the death of her mysterious mother (a famous musician and author) and her relationship with her mother have festered inside of her.

She doesn't have any normal relationships with people, including her guardian. Her only contact with outsiders is through an Internet game called Paliopolis. Her single-minded determination has made her one of the top players. Even so, only one fellow player has made an impression on her: Elf.

Marnie's school work has sufferred and she faces the danger of expulsion. While the administrators assume that the decline is due to the rising amount of Marnie's online time, the reader can see that there's more to it than that. Marnie's heavy Internet usage is merely a symptom of her problems.

Her problems soon take a turn for the worse when a mentally unstable teacher, who thinks Marnie is her half-sister, kidnaps her. Wealthy heiresses expect kidnappings, but this is no ordinary one. Her kidnapper isn't really interested in ransom. Like Marnie, Leah Slaight is a lonely, depressed person. More than anything, she wants acceptance and a feeling of belonging. When Elf tries to come to her rescue, Marnie's life changes forever.

Readers can't help but like and dislike Marnie's character at the same time. We see through her disaffected mask and sympathize with her while we wish we could caution her against her self-destructive actions. Her kidnapping forces her out of her shell and, with Elf's help (a.k.a. Frank), she begins to open up.

I recommend this book for readers over the age of 12, and especially for those close to Marnie's age of sixteen.