Jailbait

Lesléa Newman

Average Rating 9/10 (1 Review)

Andrea Robin Kaplan is a clique unto herself.

In other words, she has no friends. Her only goal is get through high school with the least amount of humiliation possible, which should be easy, nothing ever happens in the suburbs, right? Wrong.

It’s September 7, 1971, the first day of tenth grade for fifteen-year-old Andi Kaplan. Teased by the school bully because of her appearance, and largely ignored by her depressed mother and workaholic father, Andi spends most of her time alone until she meets Frank, a man more than twice her age. Because she is “jailbait,” Frank forbids Andi to tell anyone about their relationship. As he turns from being loving and attentive to controlling and abusive, Andi finds herself more and more alone. How will she find the strength to save herself before it’s too late?

From boundary breaking author Lesléa Newman comes a haunting story about a girl who is all alone, and a man old enough to know better.

Review by Molly Martin (301118) Rating (9/10)

Review by Molly Martin
Book Source: Not Known
Rating 9/10
Leslea Newman’s Young Adult novel Jailbait introduces Readers to Andrea Robin Kaplan, and her teenaged musings. Andi’s life is unbelievably tedious, dreary, and just plain boring.

The time is September 1971. The narrative is focused upon a teen beginning her Sophomore year in High School. Her only friend has moved, her brother is off to college, she has no real goals, loathes her egocentric, clueless parents, believes herself fat, and, nothing ever happens out in the mind-numbing suburbs of Long Island, anyway.

To avoid class mates who tease her; Andi commences walking home alone.

One day a car passes, and it passes the next day, and the next, and again the next. The man driving the vehicle IS older than she, however, the lonely teen begins fantasizing meeting and taking part in in a fulfilling relationship with him in her head following her seeing the vehicle over a period of days. And, one day, the car stops, and she meets Frank.

Frank, a cunning, deceitful person, is a good bit older and certainly more experienced than is she. It is during their after-school meetings, that Frank helps Andi feel beautiful, valued and desirable. What she doesn’t comprehend is that Frank is only saying what she urgently needs to hear in his plan to get what he wants. Desperate for love, Andi is ripe to have faith in virtually anything Frank will tell her.

More than that, Frank does something that no one to date has done; when Andi is with him she feels herself to be both extraordinary, and gorgeous. Frank calls Andi a woman, heady words for a girl who is at the age where she does not want to be thought of or treated as a child.

As the story progresses the reader is very aware that Frank is a malicious and spiteful, he is manipulative and he is taking advantage of Andrea. The reader is caught up in the frustration as we can clearly see what Andrea is failing to see.

But Frank does something that no one has done, when she is with him Andrea feels special, and beautiful. He calls her a woman, and that is heady, Andrea is at the age where she does not want to be treated or thought of as a child.

Andi’s parents are unmindful, self-centred and oblivious that their daughter has begun spending intimate afternoons with a ne’er-do-well, who is more than twice her age. Frank, by turns is a man who calls Andi lovely and buys her beautiful underthings, and, a vicious verbal and emotional tyrant who will eventually force Andi to participate in numerous sexual acts with or without her permission.

For a budding young woman who desperately craves to be loved; the relationship is definitive in what is not positive, or good, or encouraging or healthy. Andi understands that she must keep their affiliation hidden; she is underage, Frank could go to jail for the things that he does with her.

Jailbait is meant to be a thought-provoking tale. Readers, especially mature by years or maturity, become agonizingly aware that there really is nothing enthralling or loving or good regarding the contacts between Andrea and Frank. As an adult, school teacher, it is a simple thing for me to identify how Andrea was caught up in the situation portrayed. Andi’s main stay, her older brother with whom hers was a good relationship is gone off to college and is no longer living at home. Her parents are constantly busy, caught up in their own interests and importance, and, her only close school comrade has moved away. It is a formula for disaster; Andi’s descent into a destructive relationship is one often repeated when self-image is low.

Through Andi, Readers are provided a peek into what it is that causes some young teens to enter into an affiliation with someone who is totally wrong for them, and, will then do almost anything to continue the relationship.

Jail Bait is a chronicle jam-packed with hurt, aching and pathos.

Novelist Newman has done an estimable job on the pages of Jail Bait. The narrative targeting the upper high school group, is filled with gross language as is often portray by the age. Characters are detailed, well-drawn and convincing. Situations and scenarios are nicely completed, draw the reader into the work and maintain Reader interest throughout the reading.

While not for everyone, Jailbait is sure to interest the target audience. Language may offend some, on the other hand, I was pleased there were no graphic sex scenes.

Happy to recommend for target audience of mature and older teens, parents, counsellors and adults in general who want a better understanding regarding what makes teens tick.
Molly Martin (30th November 2018)