Sweet Sixteen by Francesca Jeffries

8/10

Sweet Sixteen and never been... killed

Leslie Burrows was born the same day as her grandmother, and each year they have two celebration parties with her grandmother's being the first on this occasion. Everything is going smoothly until Trisha's aunt and uncle start arguing and Mrs Krashner decided to tell Leslie and Trisha's fortunes as their presents, as she predicts that the two of them will have grave troubles before they reach sixteen.

Leslie started out a happy go lucky girl, did well at school, had friends and felt the world was her oyster. Since her grandmother had collapsed of a stroke and died, she was never the same person. She had become superstitious and to make matters worse, she thinks Caroline, her boyfriend Rich's previous boyfriend is trying to worm her way back into his life. There is a good side to this though, and that is Lesley is planning her sixteenth birthday party. It's going to be the biggest ever and she has her guest list in mind as well as everything else, but when accidents being to try and scupper her chances of making it to sixteen, she starts to wonder whether Mrs Krashner's prediction was right.

As the story continues, both Leslie and Trish experience strange runs of bad luck; Leslie has her invitations stolen, Caroline has invited herself to her sweet sixteen party, her reservation at Flamingos had been cancelled and her special dress for the occasion had been delivered slashed to pieces. Trish had lost her lovely earrings, been the recipient of a badly done haircut and broke up with her boyfriend Steve. What happened to the both of them could be connected as her own boyfriend seems to be spending more time with Caroline, while her ex-boyfriend Steve seems to be still interested in her. Steve is unusual, and has a dark streak Leslie found she didn't like. Anyone could be behind the incidents to Leslie and Trisha; Steve could have some deep resentment for their breaking up, Deborah could be annoyed at Leslie not having enough time for her and Caroline, who is the prime suspect, could just loathe her enough to want to hurt her as she is dating the man she loves.

The story goes back and forth at times to give readers an idea of what happened in the past. As her life gets worse, the story leaves you feeling as though anything could happen and that is what makes this a better read than The Mall.

Sweet Sixteen by Francesca Jeffries
Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: Scholastic (15 Aug 1997)