Not every YA novel kicks off with the protagonist burning her neighbor alive. But that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what Maggie, 15, is capable of. Maybe it's not entirely her fault: a voice in her head urges her to kill those who have hurt others, and that voice is awfully persuasive. To everyone else r schoolmates, her mom, her shrink ggie just seems a little bit off. But the numb, Joyce Carol Oates like first-person narration shows that Maggie has mastered how to say the right things, regardless of the repellent visions darting through her brain. Each of her murders comes close to being found out, and therein lies the tension. Don't mistake this for a thriller, though, for Shimko is on to something braver: an unapologetic, morally ambivalent look at a young sociopath who is, at the very least, bothered by her actions e feels guilt, embarrassment, and fear just like anyone else. Is this American Psycho for teens? No, it doesn't have quite that level of commitment. But it comes pretty close.

Stephen's ultra-Christian father discovers Stephen and best friend Simon in a compromising position behind their Louisiana home. Stephen is forced into religious camp, leaving Simon to his dead-end job and his parentless family of combative older brothers and mute twin, Jude. Simon's voice doesn't really ring true, but the story raises valuable issues and offers sympathetic characters many teens may identify with.

Fifteen-year-old Maggie, or Mary-Magdalene, as her flaky young mother Roxanne optimistically christened her, hears a didactic male voice inside her head instructing her precisely how and when to kill individuals who have wronged her friends. Maggie is compelled to obey the orders, and the murders come thick and fast. The first casualty is the abusive drunk father of her childhood friend and admirer, a nerdy boy named Lester Pint. Lester witnesses the (separate) murders of his father and an armed woodsman whom Maggie pushes off a cliff while they are on a nature walk, and he barely escapes being drowned in his own pool when the voice tells Maggie Lester may expose her crimes. By some miracle, she is never actually convicted of these inept and clue-laden murders. She does, however, suffer enough remorse to land in a mental hospital. Maggie has a checkered personal history to contend with. She describes herself flippantly as "the bastard memento a red-headed jackass named Lonnie Kraft left behind after he got tired of my mother's affection." On a visit to her father in prison, Maggie discovers that he is innocent of the murder of his deranged mother and that his mother heard voices in her head, just like Maggie. Maggie's affectless first-person narration gives readers a front-row seat to her every thought. It's a fast-moving tale with an engagingly complex protagonist, but it suffers from its credibility issues. (Thriller. 12-17)

Gr 9 Up-Shimko's book is billed as a psychological horror story, but readers will be torn between shaking with fear at the frightening parts and laughing at the absurd scenarios that don't quite succeed. Mary-Magdalene Feigenbaum, 15, describes why and how she killed her neighbor Lester's abusive father. She seems nonplussed about what she did except that she left a lighter with her mother's initials at the scene of the crime and is worried that she might get caught. She then murders another man by pushing him to his death and yet another by bludgeoning him with a rock. Maggie decides to do these deeds because of the voice in her head that says, "You know what you have to do." The men she kills are not sympathetic characters, but the voice also tells her to hurt innocent people. Maggie, whose father is in jail for killing his mother, has nightmares, so her mother sends her to a therapist, but the teen refuses to let on about what is really bothering her. Maggie goes about her normal routine, attending school, visiting with her best friend, hanging with her dog and stepfather. Then there is this other gruesome side of her life where she kills people. The ending offers only a slight redemption for the protagonist. In the times in which we live, it is impossible to recommend a story in which a teenager who kills three people ends with her reflecting on how she truly is a good person. Elizabeth Kahn, Patrick F. Taylor Science &; Technology Academy, Jefferson, LA