Cheat (Orca Currents) Paperback – October 1, 2010

Laurel is an aspiring journalist. She see two students cheating on a test and then gets a tip that a bigger cheating scandal is taking place on her high school campus. Although repeatedly told to back off the story, she forges on with her investigation, losing friends along the way. She is shocked to learn the identity of the person in charge of the cheating ring--someone she knows very well. Laurel comes to realize that the consequences of following the trail to truth may not always be what's in her best interest. It was easy to get caught up in this book--enough suspense to keep the story moving briskly along. A good hi-low read for teens.

I felt like this book was written for a much younger audience than a lot of other YA, which is fine, but it surprised me a bit. This one was a really quick read, though... took maybe an hour, hour and a half to read altogether.I felt like this book set out to send out a message to its readers, so things like characters weren't given a lot of thought. They don't have much depth, and there's not a whole lot of character development and whatnot here. But I also kind of felt that toward the end of the book, the message wasn't so much about cheating, but about the consequences of doing whatever it takes to get what you want without regard for others. I thought that was a message worth expressing, but since it was muddled up with cheating, it left me a little conflicted and confused.I didn't really know a whole lot about this book or the author when I picked it up - just spotted it in the new eBooks at the library and figured I would pick it up when I was done with the book I had been reading. It was definitely on the lighter side of things tone-wise compared to the other books I've read lately, so that was a nice change for me. I definitely would have liked more development all around, though, to make things feel more authentic, instead of a bit of a vessel for the author's message.I enjoyed the book well enough, having read it in one sitting, and would be interested in reading more of Butcher's books in the future, despite having mixed feelings about this one.